Summons of Japanese media raises complaints of interference
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's ruling party summoned executives from two leading television networks Friday, the latest in a series of actions that opponents say endanger press freedom and intimidate the media.
The Liberal Democratic Party's panel on information and communications strategy questioned the executives from Asahi TV and public broadcaster NHK about two separate programs at the party's headquarters.
In one program, an Asahi commentator made remarks critical of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's office, while another program on NHK allegedly contained staged material.
The opposition Democratic Party criticized the questioning as a potential infringement of press freedom.
Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga denied suggestions of censorship and said the summons were not intended to pressure the media.
Abe's government has been criticized as being too sensitive to critical reporting.
Jiro Kawasaki, head of the LDP panel, said the two executives were summoned to answer questions about allegations that the programs contained "distorted" materials.
Media watchers and political analysts say mainstream media have been shunning critical reporting to avoid trouble with officials who are increasingly touchy about how Japan and government policies are portrayed by both domestic and foreign media.
Koichi Nakano, an international politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, said Abe's government is promoting a revisionist view of Japan's wartime military atrocities, and is steering public opinion to support divisive policies such as expanding the military's role and revising the country's war-renouncing constitution.
Without checks and balances from a viable liberal opposition, "the LDP has no limits," Nakano said.
Conservative businessman Katsuto Momii, appointed by Abe in 2013 to head NHK, quickly sparked criticism by saying that the public broadcaster's reporting should be aligned with government policy, despite its longstanding editorial independence.
Although Japan's Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and press, many see worrisome trends in the past several years:
— Ahead of a December general election, the LDP sent a statement to Japanese media requesting "fair coverage."
— Abe and his government chastised the liberal-leaning Asahi newspaper over decades-old stories about Japan's wartime military brothel system — a topic of abiding friction with China, South Korea and other countries whose citizens suffered abuses by the Imperial Army before and during World War II.
— The Foreign Ministry complained to U.S. publisher McGraw-Hill about references to the military brothel system in a high school history textbook and sent an envoy to one of the writers to protest in person. The issues raised in Friday's meeting were somewhat more mundane.
Shigeaki Koga, a former trade ministry official, quit TV Asahi's "Hodo Station," a popular nightly news show, after recently making critical remarks about the Prime Minister's Office's treatment of the media.
Koga, who now is an independent commentator, says he finds many stories are not getting the coverage they deserve because of a trend toward authoritarianism.
"If the ongoing media self-censorship continues and there is only news that serves the government's interest, people will be brainwashed," Koga said in a speech Thursday at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.
The Foreign Ministry's budget for propagating its official views on history and territorial disputes was raised to 52 billion yen ($438 million) this year from 2 billion yen last year to "correct understanding by the international society," the ministry says.
Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, says intolerance of criticism has grown because of a tendency to equate criticism of the Japanese government with anti-Japanese sentiment.
"This shabby tactic defines criticism of Abe as criticism of Japan putting journalists in the awkward position of having to demonstrate 'love' for Japan," he said in an article Friday in the online review Asia-Pacific Journal.
© 2015 Associated Press
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| Marines pass through a small village where a Japanese soldier lies dead. Okinawa, April 1945. Norris G. McElroy. (Marine Corps) Exact Date Unknown NARA FILE #: 127-N-95-119485 WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 1231 |
1 comment:
First of all, the answer to your question is unequivocal. The Soviet Union won WWII. Without them Germany can hold Europe indefinitely.
But to your point, Good for Abe. Japan has regional challenges, particularly Korea and China. The way things are arranged now, they can start a war anytime they want knowing full well that Daddy America is required to fight that war on their behalf. They have a huge economy and it's been long enough. Change the fucked up constitution and make them responsible for their own actions in the region. Let them go ahead and build the nukes they have all the parts for sitting around ready to assemble, and let them know that if they fuck with China they're going to have to wear it...
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