Reining in the Web in Japan

[Mulboyne]

Another article from Japan Media Review Here The writer is worried about what he sees as growing calls to regulate the web in Japan

Recently The Asahi Shimbun's popular weekly AERA magazine featured a three-page report on Hiroyuki Nishimura and the Channel 2 bulletin board. The article focused on more than 20 defamation suits that Nishimura faces for his Web site and scathingly referred to Nishimura's "dodges for not paying" over $135,000 (15 million yen) in compensation.

"Anonymity" is something of a catchword in news reports on the Internet -- coverage often concentrates on the dangers of Internet users being able to say anything without being identified. Providers are coming under pressure from the authorities to remove postings that damage the reputation of individuals, companies or companies' products.

The same edition of AERA that covered Channel 2 carried a report on Weblogs that was as positive as the report on Nishimura's site was negative. Headlined "The Era of Blogs Has Come," AERA wrote approvingly: "You can see poster's 'face,' therefore terrible slanders and slurs won't spread." The magazine gave a laudable example of blogs in action in Japan: A company president who had instructed all of his employees to write personal blogs. The CEO finds the blogs a useful tool for monitoring his employees' interests and personalities, reports AERA.

Koichi Kobayashi, a professor of media communications at Tokyo's Toyo University, says that the Japanese Internet plays a meager role as a space for public discussion. He compares Japan's 'JanJan' news Web site unfavorably with South Korea's popular OhmyNews site. Instead, the Japanese Internet is mostly "a space for expressing personal interests, personal feelings and confessions," he says. Kobayashi compares reading the content of bulletin boards to reading a novel written in the first person.

..."Most of the Japanese media haven't seen the Internet as a chance to expand their business," says Maegawa. He suggests that few organizations have taken advantage of the Internet. "It seems to me that they see the Internet as competition instead." The Web sites of most print and broadcast organizations are relatively unsophisticated. Some of the major newspapers do little more than publish an online copy of the day's newspaper, without even an archive of old articles.

[AssKissinger]

Premium member huh? Did you decide to make a donation after all? I love that 'conversation with nature' vid. I wish you just had a regular show on TV. Hey man, maybe Soviet Supreme could help you with your legal problems. Now that Russia is free and America is fascist maybe instead of returning to California you should see if SS couldn't set you up with a happy bachelor pad in St. Petersberg.