Earlier this month, the Association of Television Viewers Who Demand Compliance With the Broadcast Law announced that it may launch a "national campaign" targeting TBS, which it accuses of biased news reporting. Should the broadcaster fail to address the accusation, the association will ask sponsors to avoid buying ads on TBS, or risk becoming "accomplices" in "illegal broadcasts." The association claims that the network's news department provided one-sided coverage of the controversial security bills passed by the Diet last fall, thus violating the Broadcast Law, which mandates "fair" coverage. It reached this conclusion after surveying TBS broadcasts and finding that the "duration" of negative coverage of the bills outlasted positive coverage.

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TBS released a statement that said, "Applying pressure on our sponsors represents a grave threat to freedom of expression and, ultimately, to democracy itself." In an editorial published on April 13, Asahi Shimbun supported TBS, and while the Asahi did not challenge the association's findings, it insisted that it is the "mission of any news organization" to "raise questions and discuss problems" related to anything in the public interest. Providing "critical views" of the legislation in question is part of that mission.

Media critic Kayoko Ikeda put it more bluntly. During a discussion on Internet TV station DemocraTV, she said that TBS's statement was insufficient. The role of the press is also to explain to the public how those in authority use power. Since the Liberal Democratic Party is the ruling party, it "controls the conversation" regarding the security legislation, which it drafted, and so the media's responsibility is to provide counterarguments.