Japan Press Weekly

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2010 November 10 - 16 [TERRITORIAL ISSUE]

Government should have disclosed Senkaku footage on its own account: JCP Shii

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo said that the video footage of collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japan Coast Guard patrol ships near the Senkaku Islands should have been disclosed by the government on its own account. “Contents of the leaked footage should not have been kept secret in the first place. The government should have made the full version of the footage public.”

The JCP Chair on November 11 gave the press the party's view on the video footage uploaded on YouTube and the investigation against a JCG officer who came forward to admit to his role in the leakage.

Shii said, “What must be questioned now is not the ‘leakage of video footage’. The point at issue is that the government has had no responsible policy to deal with the footage and has not disclosed what should have been disclosed earlier.”

He also criticized the government for using the video footage leakage as an excuse for seeking heavier punishments for violation of the National Civil Service Law and to enact a state secret protection law. “We must not approve of such a move toward infringing on people's right to freedom of speech and the freedom of the press.”
- Akahata, November 12, 2010