Japan Press Weekly

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2016 June 15 - 21 [POLITICS]

Vote ‘No’ against Abe’s media interference

Akahata ‘current’ column

The Japanese Communist Party and three other opposition parties have agreed to jointly confront the ruling bloc in the July House of Councilors election. Voters are awaiting heated campaign debates between the two forces. However, there is only one TV debate between party leaders scheduled after the official start of the election campaign on June 22. This is because Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s Liberal Democratic Party reportedly told TV companies that it will limit the PM’s appearance on TV.

When recalling the ruling party’s behavior in election campaigns, many people may recall the House of Representatives election two years ago. A few weeks before the election campaign officially began in December 2014, PM Abe appeared on a TBS news show and complained about the program. Abe claimed that the program had shown street interviews of people critical of Abe’s economic policies. Then, the LDP sent to major TV networks a written statement calling for “fairness” in their programs with the obvious intent to interfere in their news coverage. As a result, news coverage of the election campaign drastically decreased.

There are even more examples where the Abe government and the ruling LDP put undue pressures on broadcasters: Communication Minister Takaichi Sanae hinted at the possibility of suspending broadcaster licenses (February 2016) and the LDP summoned top officials of TV companies to give them warnings about the content of their programs (April 2015). Such excessive interference in media should not go unchallenged. In the upcoming Upper House election campaign, Japan’s media organizations will be tested on their willingness to be objective and independent of government interference.

Past related articles:
> Minister hints at possibility of ordering broadcasters to go off the air [February 10, 2016]
> Shii: Summoning of TV company execs by LDP threatens freedom of expression in broadcasting [April 16&17, 2015]
> Journalists criticize LDP for trying to interfere with news coverage of election campaigns [December 12, 2014]