|
The registration form
NSK News Bulletin Online
April 2009 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Story of the Month>>> Uproar Eases over Controversial Remark by Government Official -------------------------------------------------------------------
NSK Seeks Prompt Revision of Personal Information Protection Law The NSK Editorial Affairs Committee, in a hearing held by the Cabinet Office on March 27, demanded that the Personal Information Protection Law be promptly revised to eliminate abuse of the law and the deliberate concealment of information under the cloak of its terms. The controversial law took effect in April 2005, setting rules on the use of personal information possessed by private businesses. In fear of excessive secrecy due to the law and the deliberate concealment of information by public institutions, NSK has publicly called several times for the law to be changed. On March 27, Toyokazu Kondo, of the NSK Editorial Affairs Committee study group on human rights and personal information, attended a hearing held by the personal information protection committee of the Cabinet Office’s Social Policy Council. The committee is in the process of studying the implementation of the law. In a verbal presentation and written submission made at the hearing, Kondo warned that there is now a conspicuous tendency at all levels of society toward refusing to release information on the pretext of the personal information protection law. Specifically, he referred to (1) a tendency of public institutions to use the law to justify concealing information; (2) growing refusals to grant media access to information on the grounds of personal information protection; and (3) a steadily declining awareness of the importance of the common sharing of personal information by society. Kondo submitted to the hearing a brief report on a fact-finding survey conducted by the NSK Editorial Affairs Committee. The report said a survey of 58 NSK member media companies looked into adverse repercussions from the law’s application. The report cited numerous cases in which hospitals refused to release the identities and/or profiles of persons harmed as a result of criminal offenses or accidents, as well as cases in which university authorities refused to respond to media inquiries regarding the educational backgrounds of candidates running for public offices. Kondo told the hearing that these are typical cases of the law’s negative effects in which information that should be shared by society is not being made available. Kondo emphasized NSK’s stand that a full-fledged review of the existing law is needed to implement fundamental solutions to the problems. “We should specifically limit the sphere of the law’s application and incorporate into the law specific calls to respect the social usefulness of personal information, in particular, to respect the use of personal information for the public good of serving the people’s right to know,” he stated. Specifically, he proposed that a clause be added to Article 1 (the purpose of the law) and to Article 3 (the law’s basic objectives) calling for particular consideration to be made with respect to the usefulness of personal information in activities such as news reporting, which serves the public good and public interest. In addition, he proposed that the transfer to media organizations of personal information by businesses possessing such information be established as an approved exception to regulations under the law’s Article 16 (regulations on the provision of personal data to a third party) and Article 23 (exceptions). Kondo also called for the inclusion of such a clause in a related law covering the protection of personal information by administrative organizations. He said that the Information Disclosure Law, enacted in 2001 to regulate public disclosure of information held by administrative organizations, and local government rules on information disclosure should be reviewed to take into account NSK’s insistence on these issues as well. He ended his presentation with a call for the committee to open full-scale deliberations toward a prompt and fundamental revision of Japan’s entire system for personal information protection.
Extras, Follow-Up Editions Highlight Japan’s World Baseball Classic Victory Japan’s major newspapers reported the national team’s triumph by issuing extras while delaying the press times for their main evening editions distributed in Tokyo. Sports dailies substantially boosted the number of copies they issued of their March 25 morning editions. Among the national dailies, the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun and the Yomiuri Shimbun issued so-called “follow-up” editions for their evening issues after the final regular edition was completed, in order to carry stories on the major sporting feat. So did the five major regional dailies, the Chunichi Shimbun, the Kobe Shimbun, the Sanyo Shimbun, the Kochi Shimbun and the Oita Godo Shimbun. Yukan Fuji, a tabloid-size evening daily, greatly increased its print runs for its late editions. The Mainichi managed to carry the article on Japan’s championship win with a front-page banner headline, “Japan Clinches Much-Awaited V2,” together with a color photo of slugger Ichiro hitting the tie-breaking two-run single game-winner at the top of the extended 10th inning. Atsushi Narita, chief of the Mainichi News Center, said, “If Japan were to bat in the bottom half of the inning, we could not have dumped this photo in by the deadline for the follow-up edition.” According to Narita, the editorial staff assumed the game would end by 2 p.m. “After 2 p.m., we knew we could not deliver a paper without carrying news on the game’s outcome. At the same time, we were worried about the possibility of a delay in deliveries due to approaching traffic congestion in the evening,” he said. In the end, the Mainichi did run the game’s result in a follow-up edition delivered to 95 percent of subscribers in areas getting the final evening edition. “We owe a great deal to our newspaper distribution agencies for their all-out support,” Narita said. The Chunichi, the Sanyo, the Kochi and the Oita Godo carried a color photo of Ichiro hitting the game-winner on the front page of an evening edition follow-up. The Chunichi managed to deliver their follow-up edition to about two-thirds of the subscribers in areas served by their final edition, while the Kobe Shimbun covered a third of its subscribers. The Sanyo delivered a follow-up edition to most parts of Okayama City, while the Oita Godo covered most of Oita City. The Kochi Shimbun delivered its follow-up edition to the whole area usually covered by its final evening edition. The Yukan Fuji held copies of its early editions to 70 percent of the usual level and increased by 60 percent its copies of late editions, carrying the final result of the game. In total, the combined total of the day’s copies for distribution was about 50 percent higher than usual. The day’s sales of late editions more than doubled usual levels. Hiroshi Ito, the chief editor of the evening daily, said, “We achieved record sales. We expect brisk sales to continue for a while owing to our coverage of topics related to Japan’s triumph at the World Baseball Classic championship.” On Japan’s win, major sports dailies in Tokyo substantially boosted their print runs on March 25. The Sankei Sports increased its copies by 40 percent, while the increase was 50 percent for the Hochi Shimbun (Sports Hochi) and the Nikkan Sports. The sports dailies were completely sold out at many of the kiosks in railway stations. Major dailies and sports dailies also delivered an extra in the early evening of March 24. “The copies were going at an unusually fast pace,” recalled Yomiuri employees who passed out about 1,000 copies of their extra at Ginza, Tokyo. They gave out all copies of their extras within five minutes of starting distribution at around 3:45 p.m.. The Asahi and the Mainichi each issued a 4-page full-color extra, while the Yomiuri and the Sankei Shimbun each issued a 2-page full-color extra. The Asahi distributed 78,100 copies of its extra in areas covered by its four head offices and regional offices, excluding Nagoya. The Mainichi pumped out a total of 42,200 copies in areas around its four head offices and regional branches, excluding Hokkaido. The Yomiuri issued 230,950 newspapers around its six head offices and regional branch offices, and the Sankei distributed 6,000 copies in Osaka. Among the sports dailies, the Hochi Shimbun issued a 2-page full-color extra that it distributed in 37,000 copies in Tokyo and Osaka. The Nikkan Sports gave out 36,000 copies of a 2-page full-color extra in Tokyo, Osaka and Hokkaido. The Sports Nippon distributed some 30,000 copies of a 2-page extra with one color page in Tokyo and 30,000 copies of a 2-page full-color extra in Osaka. The Daily Sports handed out 14,000 copies of its 2-page full-color extra. According to Kyodo News, 12 regional or local newspapers also issued an extra: the Fukushima Minyu Shimbun, the Jomo Shimbun, the Kanagawa Shimbun, the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun, the Chunichi Shimbun, the Kitanippon Shimbun, the Kyoto Shimbun, the San-in Chuo Shimpo, the Chugoku Shimbun, the Miyazaki Nichinichi Shimbun, the Okinawa Times, and the Ryukyu Shimpo.
Extras passed out at Ginza two hours after the game ended on March 24 NTV President Resigns over False News Report Shintaro Kubo, president of Nippon Television Network Corp. resigned on March 16 to take responsibility for a news report aired during a news show last year that falsely accused the government of Gifu Prefecture of concealing a slush fund. The resignation came as a result of a Nov. 23, 2008, broadcast of the popular NTV news program "Shinso Hodo Bankisha," which aired a report about a former construction company executive alleging that he had helped the government of Gifu Prefecture set up a slush fund. The report did not cite the man’s name, referring to him as an anonymous source. President Kubo stepped down to the nominal position of an executive adviser and Tomomasa Hosokawa, the chairman of the major private broadcasting company, picked up the duties of president, according to the company. NTV also announced disciplinary measures against five others, including news bureau head Hisao Adachi, who was removed from that position and suspended for three days. According to NTV, Kubo offered to resign at a meeting of full-time board members on March 16, admitting that the incident greatly damaged the company’s credibility. In its punitive response, the company issued a three-day suspension to deputy news bureau chief Naoki Hakamada, and a five-day suspension to three others: the producer, the chief director and the news editor in charge of the news show. Adachi was demoted to the position of a councilor in the general affairs bureau, while Hakamada was transferred to the sales promotion center of the sales bureau as a deputy bureau chief. The prefectural government launched a probe into the allegation, but did not find any wrongdoing on the part of any of its officials or staff. NTV then conducted its own investigation into its reporter’s story, ultimately determining that the cited source had lied. The broadcaster apologized to the prefectural government for the false report and made an on-air apology during the same news show on March 1. Gifu Prefectural Police arrested the lying source on March 9 for obstructing government operations. In a related development, the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization, the self-regulatory body of broadcasters, decided on March 13 that its committee on the verification of broadcast ethics would look into the case by setting up a special investigative task force of legal and other experts.
|
||||||||||||||
