TOUGH TIMES IN JAPAN
TV Asahi disclosed Saturday that it left a radio transmitter inside the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima where leftist terrorists are holding 72 people hostage.
The network said they twice contacted the rebels through the transmitter that was left in the compound by a reporter who breached security in order to get an exclusive interview with the guerrillas from the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). The reporter, Tsuyoshi Hitomi, and his interpreter were detained by Peruvian police when they left the compound on Jan. 7.
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto did not mince words in slamming the network.
"TV Asahi is causing us problems," the premier said to reporters after the incident was made public.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama went even further when he said Monday the network has let down the Japanese people and government by making negotiations to free the captives more difficult through their actions.
The government has known about the transmitter since Feb. 8 but did not disclose its presence to the public because it "might harm delicate negotiations," Kajiyama said.
Other networks and newspapers quickly jumped on the bandwagon to denounce TV Asahi. The nation's largest newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, said in an editorial, "It is nothing but reckless for a media organization, an amateur in dealing with terrorism, to meddle in an incident involving rebels."
During the early days of the standoff that started Dec. 17, about 300 Japanese journalists were dispatched to Lima to cover the event.
While TV Asahi's news department was making waves for overstepping the bounds of propriety, the nation's most sober news network has been rocked by charges that its conservative management is thin-skinned.
Mistuyo Kusano, 30, an NHK news anchor, left her job reportedly because she had been given the cold shoulder by higher ups at the public network.
