Japan orders broadcasts about N Korean abductees

TOKYO, Nov 10 (Reuters) Japan ordered national broadcaster NHK today to use overseas radio programmes to emphasise the issue of citizens abducted by North Korea years ago, an unprecedented move criticised by some as violating press freedom.

The abductees, snatched by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s and taken to the reclusive state to help train spies, are a highly emotive issue for many Japanese, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe initially won voter popularity by supporting their families.

North Korea admitted in 2002 to abducting 13 Japanese, and it sent five of them back and said the other eight were dead. But Japan has called for information about the eight reported dead and has said another three of its citizens were also abducted.

''We are making the move because we believe giving the abductees hope is very important,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference yesterday after a government panel approved the broadcasting order.

Japanese law allows the government to order NHK to broadcast certain themes overseas, but it had so far avoided specifying any particular subject matter.

The Mainichi Shimbun daily said in an editorial that the move threatened to open the way for more government meddling in the press.

''It would be difficult for NHK to criticise government policies it has been ordered to broadcast, preventing it from carrying out its responsibilities as a news organisation,'' it said on Thursday.

The idea surfaced earlier this year after news reports that shortwave radio broadcasts about the abductees by a private group were being jammed by North Korea.

NHK said in a statement this week that it would ''continue to make independent editing decisions and have news coverage that is accurate, fair and unbiased.'' REUTERS BDP HS1037