March 14, 2023

The existence of records showing the fact that the Prime Minister's Office had put pressure on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) regarding the content of several TV news programs came to light on March 2.

The MIC conventionally judges the "political neutrality" based on "all programs of a broadcaster", according to the Broadcast Act. Therefore, if one program reported on the ideology or policies of one political party but other programs or programs aired on other days reported on that of other political parties, the MIC determined that this broadcaster "as a whole is politically balanced". However, the conventional interpretation of "political neutrality" in this law was changed so that the ministry can evaluate the political neutrality based on "a single program".

The revealed records include the details of how the Prime Minister's Office in 2014 through 2015 pressed the MIC to re-interpretate the law. The MIC on March 7 admitted that these records obtained by a Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker are MIC administrative documents.

A program which was particularly given a hostile view as "biased" from the Prime Minister's Office was TBS "Sunday Morning", and the program was used as an excuse for the law's reinterpretation. TV Asahi "Hodo Station", TBS "News 23", and NHK "Close-up Gendai" were also targeted. At that time, these programs were critical of the national security-related legislation the Abe government was promoting.

In May 2015, the Communication Minister at that time, Takaichi Sanae, announced in the Diet that political impartiality will be judged based on "a single program". In February 2016, Takaichi implied the possibility of ordering broadcasters to suspend operations if the contents of a program is recognized as biased.

Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees "freedom of speech, press and all other forms of expression". Article 1 of the Broadcast Act ensures "freedom of expression in broadcasting".

Pressure from the powers-that-be amounts to a crackdown on free speech. Possibly giving in to suppression of speech, newscasters of the aforementioned programs one after another left the programs. As a result, the role as watchdog of power vanished from TV journalism.

The Japanese Communist Party has since the revelation of the internal documents been demanding that intensive deliberations and summoning of all witnesses be held in the Diet in order to uncover the truth.

Past related articles:
> Broadcast workers fight back against pressure from Abe gov’t [December 21, 2016]
> What is ‘impartial reporting’? [June 22 & 23, 2016]
> TV anchors protest against minister’s remarks intimidating broadcasters [March 1, 2016]
> Minister hints at possibility of ordering broadcasters to go off the air [February 10, 2016]
> News media should not tone down criticism of Abe gov’t: critic [January 24, 2016]