Japan PM's liberal newspaper critic is humbled by errors

TOKYO (Reuters) - It was a rare role reversal for Japan's influential Asahi newspaper, which is known for exposing wrongdoing in high places, when its president stood before cameras to bow, apologise and pledge to restore his organisation's credibility.

Tadakazu Kimura told more than 100 reporters packed into a second-floor room at Asahi headquarters that the newspaper was withdrawing a controversial article on the Fukushima nuclear crisis that it now said was erroneous. It was also apologising for belatedly retracting decades-old articles on wartime atrocities based on an account later found to be fictitious.