TV Asahi Corp. President Michisada Hirose accepted some blame Tuesday for provoking accusations that the station's recent election coverage was biased.
Hirose was referring to the refusal of Liberal Democratic Party leaders to appear on TV Asahi's coverage of the House of Representatives election on Nov. 9. Their refusal was a protest of what they claimed was a lack of balance in an earlier show.
Coverage of the Democratic Party of Japan, the nation's main opposition party, took up about half of the 60-minute program in question.
"We caused some LDP members to interpret that we are backing the DPJ," Hirose said. "Taking the background into account, we are partly to blame," he said, though he defended the report itself.
On Nov. 4, TV Asahi's News Station show, broadcast on weekday nights, reported on the DPJ following the party's unveiling of its prospective Cabinet lineup in the event of an election triumph.