Journalists worried about Secrets bill

December 4, 2013

Foreign journalists in Japan raise concerns over state secrets protection bill

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201312040056

By MASATO TAINAKA/ Staff Writer

Foreign journalists in Japan say the state secrets protection bill that the Abe administration is trying to push through the Diet before the current session ends on Dec. 6 will only make their already difficult jobs that much harder.

David McNeill, 48, a Tokyo correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, predicts that the anonymity prevalent in Japan’s bureaucracy that is already quite secretive will only broaden.

When Japanese bureaucrats accept interviews, they often attach a condition that they are not to be identified in stories. McNeill thinks they may become even more reluctant to speak on the record if the bill is passed.

“After the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant (in March 2011), a lot of us tried to find workers inside the power plant. Now if we interview those people, maybe we could be breaking the law,” he said.

Another journalist questioning the legislation is Jake Adelstein, 44, a Tokyo correspondent with the U.S. online magazine The Daily Beast, whose investigative reports have covered issues involving police and financial scandals.

“The state secrets protection bill aims to crush investigative reporting,” he said.

Adelstein cited the fact that information disclosure in Japan is slow and that the bill has yet to make it clear whether a third-party organization tasked with determining whether designations of secrets are appropriate will actually be established.

“Some foreign investors are saying that they will stop investing in Japanese markets. In a country where freedom of the press is not established, the risk (of investment) is high because it is difficult to obtain objective economic information,” he said.

Meanwhile, German freelance journalist Siegfried Knittel, 68, said both Germany and Japan are U.S. allies. But the difference, he said, is that Germany openly criticizes U.S. policy where Japan is less likely to do so.

Underlying Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s rush to pass the bill is Japan’s eagerness to please the United States, he argued.

Knittel said Abe was supposed to promote policymaking initiated by lawmakers instead of powerful bureaucrats. At present, however, Abe is hastening to pass the “bill to strengthen bureaucrats’ powers,” he said.