“Basically, this bill raises the possibility that the kind of information about which the public should be informed is kept secret eternally,” said Tadaaki Muto, a lawyer and member of a task force on the bill at the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. “Under the bill, the administrative branch can set the range of information that is kept secret at its own discretion,” Muto continued. Media watchdogs fear the law would seriously hobble journalists ability to investigate official misdeeds and blunders, including the collusion between regulators and utilities that in part led to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. A probe by an independent parliamentary panel found that collusion between regulators and the nuclear power industry was a key factor in the failure to prevent the meltdowns at TEPCO’s tsunami-hit Fukushima plant in March 2011, and the government and the utility remain the focus of criticism for their handling of the ongoing crisis. TEPCO has often been accused of concealing information about the crisis and many details have first emerged in the press. In July, TEPCO finally admitted to massive leaks of radiation-contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean after months of media reports and denials by the utility. Chilling Impact “This may very well be Abes true intention - cover-up of mistaken state actions regarding the Fukushima disaster and/or the necessity of nuclear power,” said Sophia University political science professor Koichi Nakano. Legal experts fear a broad impact on the medias ability to act as a watchdog. “It seems very clear that the law would have a chilling effect on journalism in Japan,” said Meiji Universitys Repeta. Critics have dismissed as political window dressing the addition of references to freedom of the press and the right to know, which were added to the bill at the insistence of the LDPs junior coalition partner, New Komeito. The LDP has sought unsuccessfully to enact such a state secrets law in the past, but the impetus was renewed after a Japanese Coast Guard official posted video online in 2010 showing a collision between a Chinese fishing boat and a Japanese patrol vessel near disputed islands in the East China Sea. The government, then led by the now-opposition Democratic Party, wanted to keep the video under wraps for fear of inflaming already tense Sino-Japanese relations.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 05:03:19 +0000
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