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NSK News Bulletin Online
May 2008 ------------------------------------------------------------------- *Topics --Olympic Torch Relay Ends Amid Heavy Security in Nagano - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Story of the Month>>> NSK Objects to Threats, Cancellations of Yasukuni Film Showings ------------------------------------------------------------------- Spring Newspaper Week prompts various PR Campaigns NSK kicked off a series of public relations activities to raise subscriptions during the annual Spring Newspaper Week, which began on April 4, the day NSK dubbed as Newspaper-Reading Day. The PR drive included an NSK-sponsored symposium in Tokyo and a special event at the Japan Newspaper Museum (NEWSPARK) in Yokohama. Local branches of the industry-wide Council for the Promotion of Newspaper Fair Transactions, comprising newspaper publishers and newspaper sales agents, sponsored activities across the country, including distributing free newspaper copies for trial reading and releasing commercials for billboard-size display panels on city streets. In Tokyo, the council’s local branch distributed about 3,600 free trial copies of six general-interest newspapers to passersby in front of the Tokyo Kotsu Kaikan building in the Yurakucho district on April 7. They also handed out leaflets featuring the NSK Community Contribution awards and a collection of the winners from postcard essay contests. The annual NSK community contribution awards recognize and promote activities by newspaper sales agents and their employees that significantly contribute to local communities. The annual postcard essay contest is aimed at helping people appreciate the importance of the newspaper delivery system. In addition, a special photo panel exhibition at the same venue highlighted newspaper sales agents’ efforts to contribute to their local communities. NSK held a public symposium at the Hitotsubashi Memorial Hall in Tokyo on April 6. Jakucho Setouchi, a Buddhist nun and writer on the millennium of the Tale of Genji, gave a speech that led into a panel discussion on the theme, “If Newspapers Disappear - an Axis in a Time of Confusion.” On April 3, the eve of Newspaper-Reading Day, NSK held a ceremony (covered elsewhere in this issue of the Bulletin) to honor the “Happy News 2007” award winners at the Press Center Hall in Tokyo. NSK also produced a 12-page tabloid-size “Happy Newspaper,” featuring the top prize-winning article and interviews, including one with actress and newscaster Mao Kobayashi. NSK distributed the “Happy Newspaper” across the country together with free trial copies of various newspapers. On April 12-13 at NEWSPARK in Yokohama, a group of students who brought with them digital photos of their school admission ceremony took part in producing a “newspaper” featuring their photos and comments about the event. On April 6, popular cartoonist Kunihiko Hisa gave a lecture to accompany a special exhibition of works by the late Hidezo Kondo, who is known as the “father of Japanese caricature cartoons.”
More Media Firms Cooperating on joint Web sites NSK’s Digital Media Development Committee on March 27 released the results of its 2008 poll on the state of the electronic media. According to the annual survey, there has been a growing trend in the industry of multiple media firms launching Web sites together. As of January 2008, there were 10 such Web sites being run by nine operating organizations involving many media firms. There were only six such sites run by six organizations a year ago. In another new trend, an increasing number of media firms have been upgrading the video contents of their Web sites. Among the jointly operated Web sites is the news site “allatanys,” launched at the end of January by the Nikkei-Asahi-Yomiuri Internet Business Partnership, a body created by the three major newspaper companies. Another newcomer is the Web site “Nihon Retto Furusato Shimbun,” launched in February by the Local Community Network, a consortium of seven local newspapers - the Iwaki Mimpo in Fukushima Prefecture, Kiryu Times in Gunma Prefecture, Minami Shinshu Shimbun in Nagano Prefecture, Shimin Times in Nagano Prefecture, Yukan Mie in Mie Prefecture, Minami Kishu Shimbun in Wakayama Prefecture, and Shimane Nichi-Nichi Shimbun in Shimane Prefecture. Media firms were also moving into tie-ups on mobile phone Web sites and database retrieval services. Eight major regional newspapers-the Kii Minpou in Wakayama Prefecture, the Kobe Shimbun, the Sanyo Shimbun, the Chugoku Shimbun, the Tokushima Shimbun, the Shikoku Shimbun, the Kochi Shimbun and the Oita Godo Shimbun -- in October 2007 jointly started a mobile-phone site providing information on angling. The paid site offers local angling information drawn from information gathered by local newspapers. In the field of database retrieval services, the Asahi Shimbun, the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun and Jiji Press jointly launched a business information search service, called “kijisaku,” on April 1. As of January 2008, 48 media firms were already in or entering the database retrieval business, up 10 firms from a year ago. Some firms have moved to increase the outlets for their services beyond the public release of database information through their own Web sites. The survey also found that a total of 42 companies - the same as last year -- are providing moving video images on their Web sites. The Hokkaido Shimbun has started full-fledged video news coverage. As at the Chugoku Shimbun, other staff reporters also shoot video at an increasing number of newspaper companies. Some companies have even made organizational reforms to set up video news divisions. The Okinawa Times recently featured video work by university students on its Web site for a limited period. The survey added a new question about companies that have adopted the QR (Quick Response) coding system. The system uses a two-dimensional bar code that can be read by a camera-equipped phone that scans the bar code image from newspapers and magazines to get access to a Web URL address to access even more information. Eight companies have launched social networking services (SNS) through their Web sites. Five carry advertisements within such services, while one is charging for the use of part of its SNS site. A total of 36 companies -- up from just 10 in the last survey- now offer RSS (Really Simple Syndication) services, which constantly update information through automated downloads. The survey also found that the number of companies offering pod-casting services, which began spreading in 2005, now stands at 10. Over the past year, three firms terminated such services, while one entered the field. The survey, which has been conducted every January since 1998, tracks entries into the electronic media field by NSK member companies and evaluates their business strategies. A total of 88 member companies responded to the latest survey. “Happy News” Prize Goes to Story on Son Following Father’s Example Leading into the Spring Newspaper Week, NSK held a ceremony in Tokyo on April 3 to honor winners of the “Happy News 2007” awards at the Press Center Hall in Tokyo. A total of 10 award-winning “Happy News” articles, including the grand prize winner, were announced, along with nine recipients of “Happy News” prizes for elementary pupils, junior high school students and senior high school students. Another “Happy News Person” award went to the person who brought the most joy to readers. TV woman personality Kaori Manabe (see photo, far right) presented certificates and trophies to grand prize winner Isao Takuwa (second from right) of Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, and to “Happy News Person” Yutaka Morishima (second from left) of Mitaka Town, Gifu Prefecture. The top prize went for Takuwa’s submission of an article from the Mainichi Shimbun. The Jan. 17, 2008 article was about a 41-year-old firefighter in Kobe and his 18-year-old second son. The son had harbored bad feelings toward his father for doing rescue work for during and after the 1995 Kobe Earthquake without focusing on his own family. The family’s house was severely damaged in the quake. The article reported how the son gradually came to understand the importance of his father’s profession and his devotion to saving people’s lives, ultimately leading to the son’s decision to become a firefighter himself. Takuwa, who is 69, said the article warmed his heart with the affectionate interaction between the father and son. As a former policeman, Takuwa went through a similar experience himself by reporting to work on the day of the Kobe Quake, leaving his own family behind. Morishima, who is 79 and was nominated as the “Happy News Person,” was featured in an article in the Dec. 13, 2007 issue of the Asahi Shimbun. He runs a meat shop. Six years ago, he began to offer two free croquettes to local high school students in the neighborhood whenever they scored 80 points or higher on any written test at school. Occasionally, he also asked quick mathematics or “kanji” spelling questions to students who came to buy croquettes. Morishima described the pleasure he gets from encouraging today’s students to study harder. The awards were given in response to a total of 10,357 submissions, up 1,300 from the last contest. More than half of the submissions came from senior high school students and other even younger students. Takuo Takihana (far left), chairman of the Yomiuri Shimbun’s Tokyo head office and head of the NSK Committee for Promoting Newspaper Media, said in a speech at the ceremony that the award-winning articles are being picked up by TV news programs and are even being brought together in a book. “This campaign is drawing attention in other media, which is a sure sign that the Happy News circle is growing,” he said. The award-winning articles can be seen on the NSK Web site:
Kodansha, Author Condemned for Negligently Exposing News Source A third-party panel set up by Kodansha Ltd., a major publishing house, on April 9 said that negligence by an author and by Kodansha’s own editors had exposed a confidential source to charges filed by public prosecutors. The panel further said the author and publishing house had endangered freedom of expression by their irresponsible actions. Kodansha apologized and said it would set up an in-house ethics committee to better train its editors and would also tighten its checking of its books’ contents. The panel was set up after the arrest and indictment of a psychiatrist who had been used as an anonymous source in a nonfiction book about a teenage boy who killed his family. The teenager was institutionalized after setting fire to his own home in Nara Prefecture, in June 2006, killing his stepmother, younger brother and sister. In November 2007, the Kyoto psychiatrist was arrested for having given the book’s author a psychiatric report that he had prepared for a court. The author, journalist Atsuko Kusanagi, used the report in her book published by Kodansha in May 2007. She has not been charged with any offense. The 5-member panel headed by Yasuhiro Okudaira, an honorary professor at Tokyo University, started meeting in December 2007 and heard from 15 people including the author, psychiatrist and Kodansha editors in sessions totaling about 30 hours. The panel said the author’s interviews with the psychiatrist and acquisition of depositions and investigative materials was acceptable, but said the negligent way in which she and the editors used the materials had exposed the psychiatrist. It said the psychiatrist gave the author and her staff access to the materials on the condition that they would not be photocopied or directly quoted, and with the caveat that the psychiatrist would have to check the book before publication. However, Kodansha’s editors did not honor the author’s agreement with the doctor, quoting large sections of his reports verbatim and never showing him a draft of the book before publication. The panel found that Kodansha’s editors gravely violated journalistic ethics by ignoring the author’s agreement with her source. The panel said neither the author nor the editors fully understood the need to protect the source, and they also lacked the necessary will to do so in any event. Their excessive dependence on the psychiatrist’s depositions and their use of direct quotes in sales promotions flaunted the fact that the book contained confidential court records. The panel said their overt carelessness led directly to the identification and prosecution of the source. “The incident harmed the publishing industry’s ability to guarantee freedom of expression in Japan,” the panel said. It also criticized Kodansha for a lack of serious soul-searching over the incident, saying the publisher had tried to shift blame to the prosecutors. After the panel released its findings, Yoshihiko Nakazawa, a Kodansha managing director, told a news conference that publishing the book, “Boku wa Papa wo korosu koto ni kimeta (I decided to kill Papa)” was a significant act and he identified Dr. Morimitsu Sakihama as the Kyoto psychiatrist. However, the Kodansha director said he had accepted the doctor’s complaint about being exposed, had apologized to him, and had sternly criticized the author and his own Kodansha editors. Kodansha says its new ethics committee consists of ten members, headed by an executive from the editorial general affairs department working with nine other officials including the head of legal affairs and the head of publishing. The committee is to hold regular study sessions for editors and reporters on journalistic ethics, legal affairs and guidelines for newsgathering. The committee is also to assess other matters that require “high-level” judgments in consultation with Kodansha’s attorneys. Asked why Kodansha failed to name any third-party experts to its new ethics committee, public relations chief Masahiko Watase said the committee reflects a spirit of self-inspection and self-discipline. He also spoke of a need for a confidential exchange of free opinions inside the company. NSK Demands Overhaul of Privacy Protection Law NSK’s Editorial Affairs Committee issued a statement on April 25 demanding a sweeping overhaul of the Personal Information Protection Law after the Cabinet rejected anything more than minor modifications in the way it implements the law. The law, which took effect in April 2005, had been scheduled for potential revision this year. According to the NSK statement, the government has taken no action to fundamentally rectify what NSK has identified as heavy-handed implementation of the law by the government and other bodies. NSK has repeatedly and strenuously objected to the law’s spinoff effect of giving public organizations and officials a carte blanche for unwarranted refusals to disclose information to the media on the basis of exaggerated or groundless privacy issues. With no sign of government willingness to address the root problems within the text of the law, the NSK statement demands a fundamental redrafting. The statement says the law must explicitly set out that disclosure of information to the media is exempt from the application of the law and must underline the fact that the media’s role of disseminating essential information serves the public interest. A personal information sub-section of the Cabinet Office’s Quality-of-Life Policy Bureau had been examining the law for potential review on its third anniversary. NSK has investigated the implementation of the law by government offices, public organizations such as hospitals, fire defense stations and schools, and within private businesses. Based on its findings, NSK submitted a written report pointing to a growing unwillingness to inform the media and to increasing concealment of information under false pretenses. The report called for specific changes. NSK on Feb. 15 submitted a list of changes that it wanted made to the basic policy guidelines. It was the fourth time NSK had made a written submission to the Cabinet Office, following up on submissions on April 7 and Oct. 20, 2006, and on July 3, 2007.
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