The NSK Editorial Affairs Committee on Jan. 17 unveiled its revised guidelines for the operation of press clubs across Japan. The revision of the guidelines is the first since 1997. The new guidelines won approval from the NSK Board of Directors at a meeting held on Jan. 23.
Press clubs are organizations made up of reporters from newspapers and broadcast stations. They operate in each of many central government offices, prefectural and municipal offices, police headquarters and other public organizations, such as the Prime Minister's Official Residence and the Bank of Japan, functioning in a press room set up within the building of each office as a base for news-gathering activities.
The press clubs date back to 1890, the 23rd year of the Meiji era, when journalists formed a press corps, demanding the right to cover deliberations at the Imperial Diet that was set up in that year.
After World War II, the occupation forces defined press clubs as "social clubs for journalists," but the characterization and significance of press clubs have since been a source of controversy and debate. NSK's Editorial Affairs Committee has from time to time stated its position on the clubs' character and operating guidelines.
Reporters from media organizations other than newspapers and broadcasters, such as freelance journalists and foreign correspondents, have criticized Japan's press clubs for being exclusive to non-members and thereby becoming an impediment to the freedom to gather news.
In order to maintain public confidence in the media industry and to achieve broad recognition of the aims and functions of the press clubs, NSK's Editorial Affairs Committee has made a wholesale review of the 1997 guidelines. The revised guidelines now define press clubs as "voluntary organizations aimed at gathering news at public organizations on a continuing basis." In addition, the committee agreed to conditionally open the doors of the press clubs to journalists who are not affiliated with NSK member companies.
The newly revised guidelines can be summarized as follows:
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-- The functions of press clubs, which originated as organizations to advance the public authority to disclose information, include 1) reporting public information swiftly and precisely; 2) constantly monitoring public authorities and facilitating information disclosure; 3) arranging news-gathering activities and news reporting of kidnappings and other cases that involve human lives or human rights; and 4) acquiring information from citizens.
* The press clubs are made up of reporters assigned by NSK member companies and their related media organizations. The doors are also open to other journalists who have been engaged in news-reporting activities for a long time and have demonstrated a certain level of achievement. As requirements for membership, such journalists must 1) share the public-interest purpose of news reporting, 2) share a certain degree of responsibility for the operation of the press clubs and 3) strictly observe the ethics of journalism. Observance of the journalistic ethics explicitly stipulated in the Canon of Journalism is a top-priority requirement.
* In order to avoid deliberate abuses by public organizations, it is important that the press clubs initiate and preside over news conferences. However, news conferences organized by public organizations cannot be entirely ruled out. That said, news conferences should be kept as open as possible, so that non-members are able to join in such events.
* As press rooms are "working rooms" for journalists, created within the compounds of public organizations, it is necessary that both the media organizations and the public organizations assume their respective responsibilities for responding to the people's right to know. Therefore, media organizations are expected to shoulder an appropriate share of the costs and other expenses for maintaining the press rooms.
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Note: The NSK Editorial Affairs Committee is made of the managing or news editors of 58 NSK member newspapers, news agencies and broadcasters.
Top Court Holds Newspapers Liable
for Carrying Defamatory Wire Reports
The Supreme Court on Jan. 29 overturned a lower court ruling that newspapers should not be held responsible for publishing defamatory wire reports, and returned the cases to the Tokyo High Court. The complainant is former businessman Kazuyoshi Miura, who was charged with murder and other offenses in connection with the mysterious death of his wife Kazumi in Los Angeles in 1981.
In libel suites filed by Miura against Kyodo News and its subscriber newspapers that ran Kyodo's articles, the Supreme Court ruled that newspapers could not evade responsibility for reason that they only published articles distributed by the news agency.
In a much-publicized case, a woman allegedly hired by the husband struck Miura's wife on the head with a hammer at a Los Angeles hotel room in August 1981. In November of the same year, the wife was shot in a Los Angeles suburb by a still unidentified gunman or gunmen and died a year later. Miura was arrested in 1985 for his alleged part in the hammer attack and was arrested on a murder charge in 1988. The case triggered a wild media frenzy, and he has filed numerous damage suits against media organizations for libel. He was convicted of masterminding the beating, but was acquitted of the murder charge in appeals court. The prosecution has appealed the case to the top court.
In the lawsuits at issue, the defendant newspapers argued that they should be not be held responsible for publishing allegedly defamatory articles distributed by Kyodo News. They cited a much-disputed jurisprudential theory that stipulates that subscriber newspapers are not responsible for defamatory articles distributed by news agencies now that they have no means of ascertaining the accuracy of the provided articles. There had been varying judgments on this question in lower courts.
The Supreme Court ruling said that given the current state of affairs in Japan, some articles, including those distributed by news agencies, contain careless mistakes or false information resulting from excessive media interest, especially in the reporting of cases involving private persons' criminal offenses, scandals and other related acts that arouse public attention and interest. The ruling further stated that when articles pertain to private persons' criminal offenses and scandals and defame others, there are no sufficient grounds for subscriber newspapers to trust in the accuracy of distributed wire stories. Thus, the highest court handed down its first judgment on the disputed right of subscriber newspapers to escape responsibility for defamatory wire articles.
But the ruling did give a qualified endorsement of such a right when it comes to wire articles that cover issues outside of the category of criminal offenses and scandals involving private individuals.
Commenting on the Supreme Court ruling, Makoto Arai, managing editor of Kyodo News, said that the decision amounts to an imposition of certain restrictions on the use of wire stories by subscriber newspapers and raises potential problems in terms of satisfying the public's right to know.
Justice Ministry Outlines Privacy Protection Law
Covering Newsgathering
The Justice Ministry on Jan. 30 announced its draft outline of proposed legislation for privacy protection that potentially threatens media newsgathering activities.
According to the outline, the ministry will set up a Human Rights Commission by around June 2003, comprising a chairman and four members sitting in the form of a ministry affiliate. It will institute procedures for special relief to deal with cases of discrimination and abuses of serious proportions. The issues covered will include privacy violations by media organizations against victims of criminal offenses. Taking into consideration any voluntary remedies or prior mediation initiated by media organizations, the commission would mediate, make recommendations, publicize such cases and provide assistance for the victims to pursue litigation. Its powers would not include the imposition of monetary sanctions. The ministry plans to submit the bill to the current ordinary Diet session in early March.
In detail, the draft outline defines violations of human rights by media organizations as 1) infringements of privacy by media news reporting involving victims of criminal offenses and their families, families of the accused and minors who commit criminal offenses, and 2) media harassment defined as media people hiding in ambush, for instance, and pressuring any of the above-mentioned people repeatedly and persistently to be interviewed or photographed.
The Justice Ministry in 1997 set up the Human Rights Protection Promotion Council (chaired by Hiroshi Shiono, professor of a postgraduate correspondence course at Toa University). Since November 1999, the council has been focusing on providing relief for human rights violations by the media. In November 2000, it issued an interim report that proposed creating a third-party organization to help people who suffer human rights violations, including violations by the media. In May 2001, the council came out with final recommendations incorporating the principle of actively providing relief to victims of media harassment.
NSK twice submitted written opinions to the council, in January and in June of 2001, arguing that from the standpoint of safeguarding the freedom of expression, any problems related to the media should be rectified through voluntary efforts on the part of media.
The media industry has been calling for vigilance against the proposed human rights protection law, the planned personal information protection law and the so-called basic law on social environment for young people. The three proposed laws might superficially appear to reflect good intentions, but they contain elements that could result in infringements of the freedom of expression.
Media people and public opinion leaders have joined in criticizing the ministry's draft outline. They say it adds momentum to moves by the government and ruling parties to regulate the media in ways that point toward potential censorship by administrative bodies or arbitrary investigations into the media.
2001 Extra Issues On Display at Newspark
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 The Japan Newspaper Museum, Newspark, has since Jan. 29 been displaying copies of extra issues published in 2001.
The exhibition, titled "The Moment in 2001 - Headline News As Seen in Extras," covers the various major events of the first year of the 21st century. The events are presented with the help of a total of 210 extra issues and newspaper pages - domestic and foreign. The about 100 domestic items on display include editorials printed by each Japanese newspaper on New Year's Day 2001, in which writers made predictions about the beginning of the new century. Also on exhibit are copies of the extra issues published in the wake of headline news such as the Upper House elections, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the airstrikes on Afghanistan, the fatal fire in Shinjuku's congested Kabukicho district in Tokyo, the resignation of enigmatic manager Shigeo Nagashima of the pro baseball Yomiuri Giants and the birth of a baby girl to Crown Princess Masako.
The display features pages reporting the Sept. 11 attacks and the ensuing war on terrorism from newspapers from 22 foreign countries and areas, including the United States, Britain, South Korea, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Russia, Switzerland, Singapore, Pakistan, India, Israel and Portugal.
The exhibition runs through March 10. Upcoming events will include an exhibition of photographs by Pulitzer Prize-winning cameramen Kyoichi Sawada and Toshio Sakai and the Exhibition of Digital Photo Journalism demonstrating the history and present state of digital news photography, complete with an array of equipment used for digital photo-shooting, the transmission of digital-image data and final image editing.
Newspark opened in October 2000 with the aim of preserving the record of the newspaper culture and contributing to public education. Located in the Yokohama Information and Culture Center in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, the birthplace of Japan's first newspaper, the museum occupies the second to fifth floors of a 12-story structure that also features three underground levels.
The newspaper museum incorporates sections called the "History Zone," which traces the newspaper's history from its birth in Japan up to the present day, the "Present-Day Zone," which covers the diverse current activities of newspaper companies, the "Newspark Theater," which hosts drama performances on the theme of the freedom of speech, and the "Newspaper Production Workshop," where visitors actually produce a community paper.
Topics.......Topics.......Topics........
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Nikkei to Raise Font Size in April
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun is planning to in April raise the font size for its four daily newspapers - its flagship daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the Nikkei Business Daily, the Nikkei Financial Daily and the Nikkei Marketing Journal.
The space for each letter will increase by 21.1 percent, reducing the number of letters per line from 12 to 11 and the number of lines per column from 82 to 78. Also starting in April, Nikkei will publish a 44-page issue twice a week, instead of once a week. Capitalizing on equipment capable of printing up to 48 pages per copy, Nikkei plans to phase in higher average page counts, starting next year.
Japanese newspapers usually divide a broadsheet page into 15 columns for their standard page layout. In the days when newspapers were produced using lead type and plates, there were 15 letters per column. In an attempt to make newspapers easier to read, publishers have gradually increased their font sizes. In 2001, many Japanese newspapers shifted to a layout that reduced the number of letters per column from 12 to 11.
To try to preserve the overall amount of information despite the use of bigger font sizes, newspapers have been simplifying articles and adopting new page-layout designs.
Asahi's Kawasaki Printing Plant Wins ISO-14001 Certification
Asahi Kawasaki Printech Co., a subsidiary of Asahi Shimbun in Nakahara Ward, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Dec. 12 obtained ISO-14001 certification -- an international standard for environment-friendly management. The Japan Environmental Certification Institute, a certifying body, recognized the company's printing work facility as conforming to the international standard.
Kawasaki Printech has become Japan's third newspaper-related firm to win the environmental certification, following Nagano Nippo in September 2000 and Doshin Offset, a subsidiary of Hokkaido Shimbun, in Sapporo, in August 2001.
Kawasaki Printech began an in-house drive to win the international certification in February 2001 by reducing the amount of spoilage, limiting electricity consumption, recycling wastes, increasing the proportional consumption of raw materials with lesser environmental impact, and nurturing green areas within the production-plant compound.
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Story of this month>>>>1
Newspaper Sales Competition Expected
to Increase in 2002
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On average, Japanese newspaper companies depend more on revenues from circulation than from advertising. The revenue structure for the year 2000 shows that circulation revenues accounted for 50 percent of total revenues, followed by advertising revenues at 36 percent and revenues from publishing and other business lines at 14 percent .(Web site reference: http://pressnet.or.jp/data/files/0502.xls).
In other words, Japanese newspaper companies are trying to ensure their stability by keeping circulation revenues higher than advertising revenues. Due to the well-established door-to-door delivery system, newspaper companies are able to maintain stable circulation revenues, but advertising revenues are vulnerable to the ups and downs of the economy. Door-to-door delivery is therefore a major factor in Japanese newspaper sales.
As much as 93 percent of Japan's daily-newspaper circulation, representing total copies amounting to 53.68 million (counting a set of morning and evening editions as one copy), is delivered by newspaper sales agents directly to subscribers. Newspaper sales agents are independent business entities, which conclude sales contracts with newspaper publishers and engage in duties including signing up subscribers, delivering newspapers and collecting subscription fees. Although they are independent, the newspaper sales agents work together with publishers to achieve the newspapers' public and social goals.
One noteworthy factor in Japanese newspaper sales is the special treatment given to newspapers under the Antimonopoly Law. The law bans any varying of newspaper prices based on location or particular customers, as well as prohibiting discount sales as unfair business practices. The law also exempts newspapers and other authored works from the ban on resale-price maintenance contracts. As a result, the price of any one newspaper is always the same at any place in the country, and there is an established system under which posted prices set by newspaper publishers must be strictly observed. This further ensures the stability of sales revenues for newspaper publishers.
The Fair Trade Commission, which oversees the application of the Antimonopoly Law, has been considering abolishing the favored treatment for newspapers and other authored works. In March 2000, however, the FTC tentatively decided to keep the resale-price maintenance system in place for the time being. The present system of providing a newspaper at the same price to every customer at any time and place responds well to the needs of newspaper readers. It also helps newspaper publishers pursue their public-interest purposes by ensuring their operational stability. The FTC reached its decision taking into consideration public opinion favoring the maintenance of the current system, as well as voices from the newspaper industry.
Although the resale-price maintenance system has survived for now, the Japanese newspaper industry is still facing a harsh business environment.
Growth in circulation has noticeably slowed. Japan's newspaper circulation per household stands at 1.12 copies, or 567 copies per 1,000 people. Given such a high newspaper saturation rate, it is generally accepted that newspaper companies can not anticipate any future large increases in circulation. More alarmingly, the rate of growth of newspaper copies printed has fallen behind the rate of growth of new households, resulting in a trend of an increasing number of young people and single households opting against newspaper subscriptions. The entire newspaper industry is faced with the formidable task of coping with these developments. Frankly speaking, however, newspaper companies are tending to opt for the much easier route of trying to rob each other of readers to raise circulation instead of finding ways to convince more people in general to become newspaper subscribers and thereby boosting overall circulation. Today, there are five national newspapers or newspapers with a nationwide circulation, and regional newspapers are published and available at any place in the country. People can easily switch subscriptions among any of these newspapers, which creates the basis for intense newspaper-sales competition.
Another trait of Japan's newspaper industry is its common publication of sets of morning and evening editions created continuously by the same newspaper publishers. However, a steep decline in the circulation of evening editions is becoming a serious industry problem. Due to the circumstances, Sankei Shimbun, one of the five national newspapers, is suspending publication of evening editions issued by its Tokyo head office, starting as of April. The presence of a morning-edition-only daily newspaper is expected to have an impact on the market for "set" newspapers in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Due to the continuing weak economy, newspaper companies are not anticipating any increase in advertising revenues. So the world of newspaper sales looks set to enter a phase of even tougher competition.
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Story of this month>>>>2
Many Newspapers Setting Up
Third-Party Ombudsman Committees
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Since last year, an increasing number of newspaper companies have been setting up third-party ombudsman committees made up of outsiders charged with the task of scrutinizing their news reporting.
The Miyazaki Nichi-Nichi Shimbun created a committee composed of external opinion leaders to hear their views on the newspaper's news reporting. Such measures are aimed at making the newspaper more open to readers and thereby enhancing the quality of news reporting. The Miyazaki committee acts as an advisory body to the company president and is due to hold sessions three times a year. The committee members will discuss matters related to human rights and privacy, the general nature of newsgathering activities and overall coverage. The committee is also to examine how the company deals with complaints filed by readers with the paper's grievance office about editorial content.
The Mainichi Shimbun was the first to establish a similar committee in October 2000, and a total of 23 newspapers and news agency have since followed suit. Each company made its committee independent from its editorial section to try to ensure neutrality, giving the committee an elevated status as a body that reports directly to the president or to a presidential advisory group, to try to ensure transparency in the process of dealing with grievances. In most cases, such ombudsman committees are made up of external opinion leaders such as scholars.
In some companies, the scope of deliberations allowed to such committees is limited to defamation cases and human rights violations, but most companies are also asking the members of such committees to discuss the general conduct of newsgathering and reporting. Such committees usually meet from two to three times a year. All newspapers with such committees make it a rule to publish the minutes of the committee members' deliberations.
Behind these moves at newspapers lies serious concern among readers about human rights, violations of privacy involving the media and an ongoing drive in political circles to tighten the regulation of media activities on the pretext of safeguarding personal privacy. Government efforts to enact the personal information protection law and to inaugurate a third-party Human Rights Commission reflect the trend. Bar associations are going even further, demanding the creation of independent support organizations for people who have had their human rights violated by any type of media organization.
These developments have led many newspapers to set up an ombudsman committee to seek a fair judgment by having outsiders decide about suspected violations of human rights through news reporting. The committees will also deal directly with complaints filed by people who claim to have been victimized. Newspaper companies expect that these initiatives will also help strengthen two-way relations with general readers.
In related developments, the Japan Magazine Publishers' Association, which comprises 89 companies and is headed by Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. President Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, announced on Jan. 18 that it would set up what it calls a Magazine Human Rights Box in March. The body is to accept complaints about human rights violations resulting from magazine articles. The body is to deal exclusively with cases in which the reputation, trust and privacy of individuals or organizations are alleged to have been infringed upon by articles in magazines from the association's member publishers. Each complainant will be asked to specify their name, address, the name of the magazine at issue, as well as the disputed contents of the article. Complaints can be submitted by mail or facsimile to the association office. Member publishers are required to seriously address all complaints, and to respond within two weeks. The publisher must then follow up on the matter and report to the association about its reply and any subsequent negotiations with a complainant.
For the broadcasting industry, a Broadcast and Human Rights/Other Related Rights Committee was created way back in May 1997. That committee is made of eight opinion leaders who cannot be directly involved in broadcasting.
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Nihon Shinbun Kyokai
The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association
Nippon Press Center Bldg., 2-2-1 Uchisaiwai-cho, Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo100-8543, Japan
bulletin@pressnet.or.jp.
Copyright 2002 Nihon Shinbun Kyokai
All right reserved
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