Japan Press Weekly

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2016 September 14 - 20 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Ex-news anchor calls for resistance to gov’t pressure on media

A lecture meeting on the theme of the freedom of the press took place at the Osaka University Hall on September 13 with many citizens taking part. A former anchorman of a TBS news program, Kishii Shigetada, delivered a speech calling for resistance to the Abe government’s pressure on the media to conform with government expectations.

Kishii is one of the journalists who strongly opposed the Abe government-sponsored national security legislation. In March of this year, he stepped down from his news show supposedly under government pressure.

In his lecture, Kishii said, “Since Prime Minister Abe Shinzo returned to power four years ago, most press people have felt suffocated. If we leave this as it is, Japan’s media will be choked to death.”

Referring to Communications Minister Takaichi Sanae’s remarks hinting at ordering the suspension of broadcasting, Kishii noted that TV networks have exercised self-restraint in political reporting due to intimidation and pressure from the government and ruling parties. As an example of the self-restraint, he pointed to the fact that many broadcasters deliberately refrained from reporting on the July Upper House election during the campaign period and that they helped PM Abe exclude the issue of constitutional revision from campaign issues.

Warning that the Abe regime may last for a long time, Kishii stressed, “At the present, it is really important for media people to share a sense of crisis with the general public and continue to raise voices in protest. The fundamentals of Japan’s democracy are being called into question.”

Past related article:
> What is ‘impartial reporting’? [June 22 & 23, 2016]