Jiji Press said on Thursday that an employee in his 20s took practice balls without permission while covering four professional baseball teams' spring camps in February and sold them on a flea market site.
The employee belongs to the photo department of the agency's editorial bureau video center. He has admitted to the facts, Jiji Press said, and the company said it will deal with him strictly.
Jiji Press reported the matter to the four teams and to Nippon Professional Baseball, and apologized to them.
Balls and caps sold online
According to Jiji Press, the employee was attached to its Osaka bureau in February when he covered the camps of the Hanshin Tigers, the Yakult Swallows, the DeNA BayStars and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Okinawa Prefecture. He gathered up practice balls at the ballparks without the teams' permission and listed them for sale.
He posted nine lots of six balls each and sold 54 in total for 59,040 yen. He also listed and sold caps issued to reporters covering the four teams.
“This is an act that can never be permitted for anyone involved in reporting, and I offer my deepest apologies to the four teams and to everyone in the baseball world for the great trouble we have caused.”Katsuhiko Sakai, president of Jiji Press
Sakai said the company takes the matter very seriously and will act strictly, including by clarifying management and supervisory responsibility. Jiji Press will step up ethics and legal compliance training for its employees and work to prevent a recurrence, he said.