Tokyo's election commission has asked the popular video sharing website YouTube to take off clips of candidates for the local governor's race, saying it gave some of them unfair advantages and that it wanted to "ensure fairness" among candidates ahead of Sunday's election in the world's largest metropolis. Soon after the race kicked off last month, the speech by one fringe candidate, street musician Koichi Toyama, 36, has become a popular attraction on YouTube due to his eccentric, confrontational approach. Japanese election law limits the broadcasting of speeches, which are aired only on public broadcaster NHK.
"We made the requests via e-mail and fax to the YouTube office in the United States. The site has allowed only certain candidates' speeches to be viewed freely on the site, with which we cannot ensure the fairness of the election," said commission official Hiroyoshi Yone. The commission has not received any reply from the operator of the US website.
News source: Physorg
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