The Guardian-Japan broadcaster apologises after disputed Senkaku Islands called Chinese territory on air
August 21, 2024 3 min 518 words
英国《卫报》报道，日本广播机构NHK的一名员工在广播节目中称中日存在领土争议的钓鱼岛（日本称“尖阁诸岛”）为“中国领土”，NHK为此道歉，称该员工的言论不恰当，并将对其进行处罚。 评论： 该报道体现了西方媒体对中国充满偏见的典型报道风格。报道中，记者先是强调NHK为“公共广播机构”，试图让读者产生一种该机构代表日本政府观点的印象；随后，记者再次强调该事件发生在日本“公共广播机构”上，以引起读者对该事件的关注和对日本政府的批评。记者还特意提及日本官方的立场，强调钓鱼岛“无主权争议”，企图引导读者认为NHK的广播是“错误”的。 然而，记者对中日钓鱼岛争议的历史和现状却只字未提，对中国对钓鱼岛的主权主张和历史依据也未作介绍，这体现了西方媒体在报道中国相关新闻时往往缺乏客观公正的态度，而是一味地强调“争议”，企图混淆读者视听。
Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, has apologised after a member of staff referred to the disputed Senkaku Islands as “Chinese territory” during an internationally broadcast radio programme this week.
The presenter, a Chinese national in his 40s, made the unscripted remarks for about 20 seconds during a Chinese-language broadcast on Monday on the NHK World-Japan and Radio 2 channels, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
The reference to Chinese ownership of the islands came immediately after the presenter, who has not been named by Japanese media, read a report about the discovery of anti-Japanese graffiti at Yasukuni, a controversial war shrine that honours Japan’s war dead, including class-A war criminals such as prime minister Hideki Tojo, who was found guilty of “crimes against peace” over the second world war.
The islands, which are administered by Japan, have long been a flashpoint between Japan and China, where they are known as Diaoyu. They attracted Chinese interest in the 1970s after studies suggested they could sit amid potentially huge deposits of oil and natural gas. They are also near vital sea lanes and surrounded by rich fishing grounds.
The presenter is expected to lose his job over the incident, media reports said, after NHK lodged a “strong protest” to an affiliate that has employed him to translate and reads news articles for the broadcaster since 2002.
“It was inappropriate that a statement unrelated to the news was broadcast, and we deeply apologise,” NHK said in a statement. “We will thoroughly implement measures to prevent a recurrence.”
The reference to the Senkakus is particularly embarrassing for NHK, which has traditionally echoed Japanese government positions on territorial disputes and historical issues such as the “comfort women”, a euphemism for tens of thousands of girls and women – mostly Koreans, but also Chinese, south-east Asians and a small number of Japanese and Europeans – who were forced to work in frontline brothels run by the Japanese military before and during the second world war.
Japan’s official position on the Senkakus is that the island’s are “clearly an inherent part of the territory of Japan” and “there exists no issue of territorial sovereignty to be resolved” between Tokyo and Beijing.
The simmering dispute over the islands came to a head in 2012, when the then rightwing governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, raised the idea of buying the islands from their private Japanese owners. That triggered an intervention from the central government, which bought the islands, effectively nationalising them.
The move sparked anti-Japanese protests in Beijing and other Chinese cities, and hundreds of Japanese firms temporarily closed their businesses in the country.
Chinese vessels regularly enter waters near the Senkakus, with Japan scrambling self-defence force jets in response. The territories were in the news again recently after the Japanese coastguard rescued a Mexican man who had become stranded on one of the islands after leaving the island of Yonaguni in a canoe in an apparent attempt to cross to Taiwan, 100km away.