読売新聞よみうりしんぶん 不正ふせい受給じゅきゅう事件じけんの誤報ごほう 朝刊ちょうかんに検証けんしょう記事きじ 関係かんけい者しゃ処分しょぶんへ

Yomiuri Shimbun announced that, regarding the issue in which it mistakenly reported the subject of the illegal secretary salary payments case being investigated by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office Special Investigation Department, it will publish a review article in the morning edition on the 30th and has made public its policy to take disciplinary actions such as demoting the head of the society section and reducing their salary.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the front page of its morning edition on the 27th of this month that the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Offices Special Investigation Department was investigating Takashi Ikeshita, a member of the House of Representatives from Nippon Ishin no Kai, on suspicion of illegally receiving secretary salaries. However, in reality, the target was House of Councillors member Akira Ishii. The newspaper apologized to Mr. Ikeshita for mistakenly reporting the subject of the investigation and published a correction article.

We published a verification article about this in the morning edition on the 30th, revealing the circumstances that led to the false report, including: the reporter mistakenly believed that the person under investigation was Representative Ikeshita; definitive information about the person under investigation was not obtained and confirmation was insufficient; and although multiple parties provided negative information such as this might turn out to be a false report, the decision was not made to halt the publication of the article.

On top of that, as of September 5, Executive Managing Director in charge of editing, Riichiro Maeki, and Editor-in-Chief, Taro Takihana, will each forfeit 30% of their executive compensation and salary for two months. In addition, Social Affairs Department Head, Atsuko Kobayashi, will be demoted and subject to a pay cut as a disciplinary measure.

It also states that disciplinary actions will be taken against a total of seven people, including the judicial chief and reporters.

Yomiuri Shimbun says it will strengthen reporter training and thoroughly check articles before publication as measures to prevent a recurrence.