It was like a kangaroo court when the House of Representatives Communications Committee in March 1999 grilled the president and chief news editor of Asahi National Broadcasting Network about the contents of a popular news show, said Taizo Fukudomea, who was on the committee.
The two TV men were summoned to the Diet to give unsworn testimony and were severely criticized by both the ruling and opposition parties, who alleged that TV Asahi's News Station show misled viewers by airing a report that claimed high concentrations of dioxin were detected in spinach at a farm in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture.
The report was based on the findings of a survey the broadcaster conducted with a private research institute. It caused a drastic fall in sales of vegetables from Tokorozawa, an area dotted with waste incinerators.
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