TOP executives at Nikkei Inc. pledged Friday to preserve the editorial independence of the Financial Times after the Japanese media group’s US$1.3 billion purchase of the British business newspaper, which has sometimes been critical of its new owner.

    “I would like to clearly state that we have complete faith in their editor-in-chief and editorial direction, and that their editorial independence will remain unchanged,” Nikkei chairman Tsuneo Kita told a news conference on the deal, which has stunned the media world.

    The biggest acquisition by a Japanese media organization raises questions about how the new ownership might affect the editorial direction of the FT, especially coverage of Japanese companies in which Nikkei has enjoyed dominance for years.

    Nikkei CEO Naotoshi Okada bristled at the suggestion that its flagship business daily was a “mouthpiece” for corporate Japan that had initially ignored, then soft-pedalled an accounting scandal at Olympus Corp. — a story the FT broke.

    “On the Olympus reporting, we may have been late, but that doesn’t mean we held back. We are not thinking of making the FT do the same as us editorially,” Okada said. (SD-Agencies)