SAPPORO -- A director at NHK's Sapporo broadcast station mistakenly sent the internet address of a file containing interviews with local residents about Aleph, the direct successor of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, to the group itself, the station announced Friday.
According to the station of the public broadcaster, the file contained 2-1/2 hours of interviews with six people, including residents living in the vicinity of a facility associated with Aleph. Part of the recordings makes it possible to identify some speakers.
The Sapporo station said it has already apologized to two of the interviewees it was able to make contact with.
Around 5 p.m. on Thursday, the unnamed director sent an email to an outside agency to ask it to transcribe the interviews, which were conducted last month. The director also intended to share with a colleague the internet address from which the file could be downloaded, but mistakenly sent it to Aleph instead, according to the station.
The initial letters of the colleague's and Aleph's email addresses are the same, and when the director was putting in the email address, the Aleph address automatically came up on the display. Without noticing this, the director sent the email, according to the station.
Realizing the mistake soon after, the director notified a superior. However, the station did not take measures that could prevent the file from being opened until around 10 a.m. on Friday.
"We deeply apologize to all those who were affected," the Sapporo station said in a statement. "We will investigate to determine what actually happened and strictly deal with the matter. We will implement further measures regarding how to deal with information in news reporting and work to prevent a recurrence."
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