In Preparation to Join US Wars, Japan Dismantles Freedom of the Press

[marmar]

In Preparation to Join US Wars, Japan Dismantles Freedom of the Press

Thursday, 17 December 2015 00:00
By Jon Mitchell, Freedom of the Press Foundation | News Analysis


In 2010, Japan was ranked #11 in Reporters Without Borders' global Press Freedom Index. By February 2015, that number had plummeted to #61 - and next year it will likely fall further.

Since coming to power in 2012, PM Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party have embarked upon a war of attrition against press freedoms in Japan.

Assaults have included: embedding neo-nationalists in key positions at state broadcaster, NHK; issuing veiled threats to TV networks that coverage critical of the government might cost them their broadcast licenses; and accusing a German journalist - who'd written about PM Abe's historical revisionism - of accepting a bribe from China.

This week, David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression, was scheduled to visit Tokyo - a trip which would have brought international attention to the Japanese government's suppression of the media. But at the last moment, officials canceled his trip claiming they were too busy to meet him.

The LDP is particularly keen to avoid scrutiny of the State Secrets Law which it rushed through parliament in late 2013. ....................(more)

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34085-in-preparation-to-join-us-wars-japan-dismantles-freedom-of-the-press

[Blue_Tires]

1. Slanted piece...

There's actually widespread support for Japan's increased investment in defense (i.e., the ATD-X), especially as China continues to encroach on the South China Sea...

I also don't know what's supposedly so shocking about the future prospect of U.S.-JSDF fighting alongside each other, as we would with any other ally... It's not like Japan would ever agree to send their forces to the ME or whatever anyway -- Their eyes are on China...

[marmar]

2. There was majoritarian support for the Iraq War at one point....

...... propaganda does that.

[Blue_Tires]

3. But support for invading another country

does not equal support for increased defense spending -- Especially since the Japanese believe they can design a much better 5th-generation fighter in-house instead of using ours...

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Perhaps then you can explain this Reuters photo taken in Iraq in the early 2000s

during our grand misadventure in Iraq

http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20070515&t=2&i=799632&w=644&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&sq=&r=799632

Or maybe this one

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/06/20/japan21606_wideweb__470x432,0.jpg

[Blue_Tires]

6. Oh, you mean the ones helping with logistics and did no combat whatsoever?

Those guys??

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. You said they would never, ever, cross my heart be in the ME

so I pointed out they were.

That is all

[Blue_Tires]

8. Of course that means the premise in the OP has the same flaw

in addition to its others...

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. I am just being accurate

as to the F-35, can't say I blame them... it stinks

[Octafish]

5. Never hear about Fukushima these days.

The Japanese Government and TEPCO thank the new State Secrets Law for that, too.