The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission has launched an investigation of three NHK employees — two reporters and a director — on suspicion of insider stock trading. They are suspected of garnering ¥100,000 to ¥400,000 in profits after trading 1,000 to 3,000 shares on "insider" knowledge.
The profit amounts are not big, but the damage to the reputation of the public broadcasting entity is great. If media people use information that has been collected for news reporting for other purposes that include increasing their own financial profits, the public will lose trust in the mass media. Mass media's raison d'etre is to advance people's right to know. Such inappropriate use of information could also tempt the government to intervene in news gathering and reporting activities.
On March 8, 2007, NHK reported, in an exclusive broadcast at 3 p.m., that restaurant operator Zensho Co. planned to take Kappa Create Co., a sushi chain operator, under its wing. Two of the three NHK employees admitted obtaining advance information from computer terminals of NHK's news information storage system before the news broadcast, buying Kappa Create stock, and then selling the stock the next day. The third employee said he bought shares after learning through a mobile phone terminal that the price of the company's stocks were rising. The three are stationed in Tokyo, Gifu and Mito.