KyotoJournal: Media Critic: Asano Kenichi
May I tell you first why I wanted to be a journalist? When I was a junior high student, the news arrived that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. Now, this would have been a memorable day for us Japanese for still another reason, because NHK had scheduled the very first live overseas TV news broadcast, from Washington. It was supposed to start about six in the morning. Well, I loved English classes, so at two or three AM I was listening to the American Armed Forces Radio Network and I heard about President Kennedy. I didn't know the word 'assassinated,' so I opened my dictionary and was shocked by what I found...
...Q. What motivated you to move to an academic position in your mid-40s? Why not another news service or newspaper? With your credentials couldn't you have landed such a job? A. It's impossible in Japan, because I am very notorious. Q. Were you essentially blacklisted? Yes, by mass media and police — and the government, maybe... In a strange and troubling stalemate, Japan's press is at once too free and too controlled. It lacks the self-restraint essential to protect individuals' integrity and privacy, yet it also fails to assert itself as a watchdog of the authorities...more...
