Japan’s Nikon Corporation was stung at the weekend by criticism from China’s state broadcaster CCTV for selling defective products and poor customer service, becoming the latest in a long line of multinationals to be targeted by state media.

Nikon was making an effort to contain damage to its brand in China after CCTV claimed its D600 camera took bad quality pictures and that Nikon had refused to replace defective parts or fix the cameras. It was one of a half dozen companies profiled by the annual “consumer day” segment of the programme 3.15, which is often used to vent nationalist sentiment and criticism of foreign business.

Compared to previous years, Saturday’s Consumer Day edition of 3.15 was relatively mild, however. Last year, it singled out Apple for its poor customer service and German carmaker Volkswagen AG over gearbox problems.