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A committee of the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO) on Tuesday criticized NHK over a meeting between program production officials and politicians regarding a program dealing with wartime sex slavery.

"Their actions endangered independence and autonomy, which is of utmost importance for public broadcasting, and caused serious misgivings for viewers who had held expectations for and trust in NHK," the BPO's Committee for the Investigation of Broadcasting Ethics said.

The program in question, "ETV 2001 series: Senso o Do Sabaku ka" ("How Should We Judge Wars?"), was aired in January 2001, focusing on the problem of the former Imperial Japanese Army's euphemistically-termed "comfort women."

In January 2005, it emerged that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, then serving as deputy chief Cabinet secretary, had met with NHK officials and told them, "I want you to report on the issue fairly and justly." This sparked public concern over whether politicians were pressuring the public broadcaster.

Commenting on the fact that then senior broadcasting official Takeshi Matsuo and other production officials had visited ruling party politicians together with Naoki Nojima, an NHK official who was in charge of relations with Diet members at the time, to explain the format of the program, the ethics investigation committee said the meeting "caused misgivings for viewers who had expected and trusted that NHK would exhibit independence and autonomy."

The committee also criticized the fact that Nojima had issued orders to amend and delete parts of the program to production staff the day before the program was aired. The committee requested that the activities of NHK's relations with Diet members and its production division be divided up, with work separated in organizational terms.

It also requested that NHK provide another explanation to viewers. However, NHK does not intend to produce another program on the issue.

It's extremely unusual for a decision to be made on a program that was aired eight years ago. Committee chairman Yoshiharu Kawabata said NHK has not ruled out the possibility of its broadcasting and production officials meeting with politicians before other programs are aired.

NHK's public relations department expressed disappointment at the ethics committee's conclusion.

"It is disappointing that the program was evaluated as lacking in perfection and being unfocused," a department representative said.