Nippon Television’s “24-Hour TV” Suspicious Scenes Disappear

   Two scenes taken from the “100-kilometer charity marathon” broadcast as part of the program, “24-Hour Television 29 – Love Saves the Globe” aired by Nippon Television Network Corp. on August 26-27, are now under fire of criticism on the internet. The scenes were shown on the internet site where animation pieces were contributed and were becoming the target of increasing criticism. The animations, however, were withdrawn.

   One of the scenes shows a TV staff shouting to an old woman who touched the two members of the “Angaruzu” comedy group. The TV staff shouted violently close to the woman’s face. The words shouted were blurred but the voice was so loud that it could be heard by the viewers of the program. The criticism says that it was “too much.”

“That was not a caution, but an intimidation.”
“That kind of attitude toward elderly people like that would not save the globe.”

   These are some of the messages seen on the “Channel 2” free posting site on the internet.

Criticisms Were Triggered After Shown on YouTube

The two animated scenes disappeared from YouTube.

The criticisms against the scenes were triggered when they were picked up on the YouTube “Broadcast Yourself” site on the internet so that the scenes became free for viewing by anyone in the public. On the Channel 2, many threads were started linking to the animated scenes, spurring further critical voices.

   Inquired by J-Cast, a person in charged of the program production at Nippon Television admitted that the staff who shouted at the woman was “inconsiderate. “ “I warned him about that,” he said.

   Critical voices were heard about this incident, such as:

“These shouldn’t be words for someone running in the 100-kilometer marathon.” And,
“The program can’t give the viewers good impression with that kind of doing.”

   The person in charge of the program production told J-Cast:
   “We realize what was pointed out (on the internet site), and we are considering whether or not we should make any comment (publicly).”

Public Relation of Nippon Television: “We refuse to answer.”

   At any rate, the scenes would be inappropriate to be presented to the public. But showing the close-up of the scene on the YouTube site was certain to have added fuel to the criticism. It may be because of this background, the close-up scenes were withdrawn with a note which said, “The animated scenes have deleted at the request of Nippon Television, which owns the copyright, and for the reason of not having obtained a permission.

   It is certainly an infringement of the copyright to put on the YouTube site the images of which the copyright is owned by Nippon Television without consent of the company to do so. Looking at YouTube, however, it is noticed so many images taken from programs broadcast by Nippon Television are being shown. It is wondered why the two scenes in particular have been deleted so much faster than other pieces. It is possible to suspect that Nippon Television requested for the deletion of the “images in question” to prevent further expansion of the criticism.

   J-Cast, besides interviewing the person in charge of program production, asked the public relations department of Nippon Television. Its reply which was made to us in writing had only one sentence as follows:

“To the questions dated August 29, we refuse to answer.”