A Japanese media watchdog has decided to demand that Nippon Television Network Corp. issue a report in response to allegations that it fabricated a Lao festival in a popular variety show broadcast in May.
“We’ll also check the broadcast images,” Asaka Kanda, head of the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization (BPO), said Friday.
The weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun recently reported that the purported festival, in which people compete to see how fast they can pass a wooden strip over a pool of water on a bicycle, had not existed in a region of the Southeast Asian country before it was introduced in the TV show, “Sekai no Hatemade Itte Q!”
The TV station has admitted that the festival was held for the first time in the region. But it has denied making up the festival, saying it is a popular festival Southeast Asian broadcasters have reported about.
Source: The Japan Times
