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NSK News Bulletin Online -------------------------------------------------------------------
The year 2002 ended up being quite a tough year for Japan’s newspaper industry in many respects. Business revenues remained low, mainly because of reduced advertising in the weakening economy. On the editorial front, the newspaper industry focused on trying to block bills proposed in the Diet that threatened to restrict the activities of the media.
On April 24, NSK issued a statement opposing the two bills. Various media groups and individuals across Japan followed suit with protest statements of their own. In the Diet, opposition parties strongly objected to the bills, and no action was taken to enact them by the end of 2002. However, the ruling coalition has not given up on the bills and intends to carry them over for future enactment. The push for new legislation to curb media activities came in line with mounting public criticism of the media for so-called “media scrums” in which packs of reporters aggressively pursue individuals in the news in a manner that can infringe upon the human rights of such individuals. NSK's Editorial Affairs Committee issued a statement in December 2001 about this problem and proposed preventive measures. A subcommittee was set up in April to address the matter. It was agreed that media representatives and press clubs in each prefecture would coordinate immediate responses in the event of any future incidents of this type. As a result of that agreement, newspaper readers in 44 of Japan’s 47 prefectures have so far been advised how to get in touch with a grievance office in their area to report such incidents. In September, the unprecedented summit meeting between Japan and North Korea resulted in a news blitz. After North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s admission about the abductions of Japanese nationals, five survivors of the abductions visited Japan in October. As their homecoming visit was exactly the type of big news that had previously provoked media scrums, it became the first major test of the preventive arrangements. NSK is pleased to report that the local councils of media representatives in the regions to which the five survivors returned functioned as intended. Self-restrained media conduct was the rule and the rights of the five survivors were respected. This success was achieved despite the fact that reporters on the scene were frustrated and upset by the degree of self-control demanded of them and by their resulting obligation to rely much more than normal on “pool” coverage. With respect to Japan’s so-called press clubs, the NSK Editorial Affairs Committee in January announced revised operating guidelines in an effort to build up reader support for the aims and functions of such clubs. The new guidelines define the clubs as “voluntary organizations, organized by journalists with the aim of gathering and reporting news at public organizations on a continuing basis.” They also state that more will be done to make press clubs as open as possible, in order to permit non-member journalists to attend the news conferences organized by such clubs. Nevertheless, in October, the delegation of the European Commission in Japan demanded the abolition of the press club system as a primary aim in its Priority Proposals for Regulatory Reform in Japan. The NSK Editorial Affairs Committee sees the commission’s criticism as stemming in part from some misunderstandings and has reactivated its subcommittee on the press club affairs to respond to the EU demand. The subcommittee is to convene for its first meeting on Dec. 18. Newspaper industry management saw 2002 as a very bad year. Corporate earnings continued to weaken in tandem with the Japanese economy. Newspaper advertising volume fell year-on-year for 14 consecutive months starting in September 2001. Even Japan’s co-hosting in June of soccer’s World Cup defied earlier expectations of a big rise in advertising. The economic slump continues to cast a long shadow on the newspaper industry. But regardless of the overall decline in demand for advertising, both readers and advertisers continue to seek greater use of color in newspapers. Advertisers have been calling for high-level color management for ads in order to facilitate digital processing. In response, newspaper-related industries this year adopted a new standard for newspaper color printing called Japan Color for Newspapers (see the Story of the Month). The new color standard is expected to induce advertisers to buy more color ads. The NSK “Read-Me” campaign to motivate youth to read newspapers entered its third year in 2001. The campaign included lectures at universities and more action by individual newspaper companies taking part in the Newspapers in Education (NIE) program that aims to bring newspapers into greater use in classrooms.
The NSK Editorial Affairs Committee decided in November to reactivate its subcommittee on press club issues. The subcommittee’s first meeting is due for Dec. 18. The Editorial Affairs Committee had already in January announced new operating guidelines for press clubs. Those guidelines were the result of deliberations by the subcommittee on the press clubs that was originally set up in June 2001. The guidelines said: (1) press clubs are voluntary organizations (rather than bases for newsgathering) formed by journalists who conduct newsgathering activities at public organizations on a continuing basis; and(2) steps should be taken to allow non-member journalists to participate in news conferences at press clubs in a manner that would conform to the actual conditions at each press club. The subcommittee has now been reactivated in response to a presentation by Bernhard Zepter, head of the delegation of the European Commission in Japan, to an Oct. 22 meeting of the government’s Council on Regulatory Reform. Zepter submitted a report titled “EU Priority Proposals for Regulatory Reform in Japan, 2002” that demanded that Japan place top priority on doing away with its press club system. The report said Japan’s press club system has broad negative consequences for domestic and international consumers of information about Japan. The commission demanded that all holders of a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press card issued to correspondents of foreign media organizations be allowed to attend official media events on an equal footing with domestic journalists. It said that abolishing the press club system would remove current restrictions on the free trade of information. The commission cited the Lucie Blackman murder case and the recent visit to North Korea by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as instances in which foreign correspondents were denied access to briefings. In working-level consultations on Nov. 25, the European Commission insisted that the press clubs be abolished in order to allow foreign correspondents free access to cover official organizations. The Japanese government responded that the press clubs are voluntary and that the government respects domestic journalists’ support for the system, noting that media culture varies from country to country. The press clubs date back to 1890, the 23rd year of the Meiji era, when journalists formed a press corps and demanded the right to cover deliberations at the Imperial Diet created earlier that year. That precedent led media organizations to form press clubs to pressure various government organizations to stop hiding information from the public. NSK issued an official statement way back in June 1993, saying that foreign journalists who applied should be granted regular membership in press clubs. That statement also said that foreign journalists should be given fair and equal access to sources, including the right to attend official and unofficial news conferences. NSK maintains that the European Commission’s claim that the press club system hinders “fair and equal access to information” is based on a mistaken interpretation of the facts. It also questions whether doing away with the press clubs will ensure equal access. Some calls for abolishing the press clubs may be linked to the language barrier, nonconformity with the Japanese system, and other issues faced by foreign correspondents. Despite living for many years in Japan, many foreign correspondents cannot speak Japanese fluently enough to reliably obtain information directly from sources. It is also therefore difficult for them to obtain verbal confirmations of events from government officials by telephone. As it is undesirable for such foreign correspondents to convey inaccurate impressions of Japan, domestic Japanese sources of information must enhance their own capacity to send out information worldwide. The reactivated subcommittee on press club issues is expected to address the European criticism of the press club system as well as its operation.
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