Weekly Mag Journo takes MoJ to court

[Mulboyne]

Japanese journalist takes fight over press freedom to court
By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo, Financial Times (link to Straits Times version)
Yu Terasawa, a journalist who writes mainly for Japanese magazines, filed the suit this week against the minister of justice and is seeking damages of Y2.48m ($22,690).
...Although the constitution guarantees press freedom, many public institutions use the country's cartel-like press club system to restrict access to information.
...Mr Terasawa's case, which is due to be heard in a year, involves two incidents at separate regional district courts. In both cases he was denied a seat in the press or public gallery and in one case was denied a written copy of the court's verdict on the grounds that he was not a member of the relevant press club.
..."The court gave the journalists who are members of the press club copies of the verdict. Why was this distinction made between these two groups of people? There is no reasonable justification for making this distinction," said Katsuhiko Tsukuda, a lawyer for Mr Terasawa.
..."Parts of the government are concerned that if they allow freelance journalists or magazine journalists in, they cannot control the flow of information," Mr Terasawa said. He added that the courts tried to restrict journalists' access to proceedings because they were geared towards a guilty verdict. This is a concern shared by many lawyers.
..."We believe the prosecutor presents only evidence that leads to a guilty verdict," said Kenichi Yamaguchi, a lawyer in Osaka. "In Japan, the conviction rate on all indictments is 99 per cent."
In fiscal 2003 there were 79,871 indictments of which 67 were found innocent, according to the Supreme Court.

[Mulboyne]

Japan Media Review: Interview With Terasawa
Like all journalists everywhere, Yu Terasawa needs access to information to do his job. But as that rare thing in Japan -- a freelance investigative journalist -- he is cut off from information reserved for members of the Japan's ubiquitous kisha clubs (press clubs). Following pressure from the European Union, in March kisha clubs finally opened their doors to foreign correspondents. But Japanese freelancers, says Terasawa, are still shut out.
Terasawa has launched a court case against the Japanese government and the kisha club system. He argues that cozy collaboration between journalists and press clubs promotes lazy journalism, protects vested interests and obstructs the work of freelancers like him.
...JMR: Do you think newspaper readers are aware of how the kisha club system works?
Terasawa: They don't know about the kisha club system. It's the most taboo topic for newspaper journalists. The most important thing for the newspapers is to make it look to the readers like they have been out working as hard as they can to gather information from morning till night before writing their article. If their readers knew that they had just picked up a piece of paper from the police summarizing some incident, no one would buy newspapers.