Issue:
It hasn’t been a good year for the press, as new laws, the press club system, and decreasing transparency stifle access
This year’s edition of the World Press Freedom Index, compiled and issued by the French organization Reporters Without Borders, paints a pessimistic picture of media freedom in the democratic countries of Northeast Asia: Taiwan fell three places to rank 50; South Korea dropped seven to rank 57; and Japan slid down six to 59.
RSF, as the organization is also known, uses a methodology that combines hard facts such as the number of journalists imprisoned or killed with a survey of people knowledgeable of the media scene in a particular country. This does give a subjective side to it, admits Benjamin Ismaïl, the RSF officer responsible for Asia, but it reflects the opinion of those involved in journalism and it allows scope to discern underlying trends.
OUT OF THE 180 COUNTRIES ON THE INDEX, ONLY FIVE FROM ASIA MAKE IT TO THE FIRST HALF OF THE TABLE
Most observers agree that the most serious development regarding press freedom in Japan in 2013 was the passing of the secrecy law in December. This law will go into effect after a one-year period, and thus does not yet directly affect press freedom in Japan. However, if one looks at the bigger picture and adds, for example, the way the government has packed NHK’s Board of Governors with people close to the prime minister, a negative trend emerges which has affected Japan’s rating. Carsten Germis made the point in this column (Dec. 2013) that access to information for foreign journalists has become more difficult since the return to power of the Abe government.
On the structural side, RSF points the finger at a long-time nemesis, the press club system: “The discrimination against freelance and foreign reporters resulting from Japan’s unique system of kisha clubs has increased since Fukushima,” the report says. Furthermore, the organization for the defense of the rights of journalists lists “arrests, home searches, interrogation by the domestic intelligence agency and threats of judicial proceedings” in the cases of some Japanese freelance journalists.
The harsh assessment of the government’s and Tepco’s information policies related to the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi comes one year after RSF first slammed Japan on the same issue. Japan fell a frightening 31 places in the 2012 Index due to a “lack of transparency and almost zero respect for access to information on subjects directly or indirectly related to Fukushima,” RSF argued.
Tepco is still a big part of the problem, since the company’s natural tendency to operate behind closed doors remains in effect. The recent Asian Nuclear Power Briefing on the future of nuclear power in Asia, which was hosted by Tepco and chaired by Barbara Judge, the deputy chairman of the company’s Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee, was only opened to journalists after our colleagues from the Foreign Press in Japan intervened.
In interviews, Judge has repeatedly insisted that a new corporate culture has taken root at Tepco. But the fact that Tepco’s management thinks that it can discuss the future of nuclear power without media scrutiny raises serious doubts about this assertion. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Environment acts the same way: the rules for media coverage of their “workshop on radiation and thyroid cancer” held in a Tokyo hotel in February were extremely strict.
It is no comfort that freedom of the press has also regressed in South Korea and Taiwan. In South Korea, the main issue is also structural. While the National Security Law (NSL) does not single out journalists, it severely affects freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The key provisions punish vaguely-defined activities against the state and support for North Korea. Although the NSL dates back to 1948, the number of cases in which it has been invoked has risen recently: 102 people were charged under the law in 2013 the most in the past 10 years. In the 66 cases that were ruled upon in 2013, 62 ended in a guilty verdict.
How much this is due to the policies of President Park Geun-Hye is too early to determine, says RSF’s Ismaïl, as she has just completed her first year in office. Amnesty International used that occasion to ask her in an open letter to “repeal or amend the NSL so that it conforms to international human rights law and standards and ensure it is not used arbitrarily or to harass and restrict the rights to freedom of expression, opinion and association.”
The Asia chapter of the report accompanying the 2014 World Press Freedom Index is titled “Chinese big brother is watching, and exporting its methods.” RSF sees Beijing increasingly meddling in media affairs of Taiwan, Hong Kong (dropping 3 to rank 61) and Macau (not ranked). The biggest danger, RSF writes, is selfcensorship. In Taiwan, the dependency on the mainland is growing due to the increasing economic ties through the Taiwan straits. RSF is not alone in raising these issues. In a recent study, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) came to the same conclusion for both Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Both territories have also seen physical attacks on journalists. The most recent example is the stabbing of Kevin Lau Chun-to in Hong Kong in late February. Only a month earlier, Mr. Lau had been removed from his post as editor-in-chief of Ming Pao, a Chinese-language newspaper known for its investigative reporting, and been replaced by someone who is seen as more Beijing-friendly.
Asia, in general, is a dire place for press freedom. Out of the 180 countries and territories listed on the 2014 index, only five from Asia make it to the first half of the table Mongolia was added to Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. The democracies in Northeast Asia are role models for the continent, which makes the Chinese-language media in Taiwan and Hong Kong, in particular, relevant beyond the borders of their territories. It is worrying when press freedom in these countries erodes, because the region also features two countries that have been constantly ranked at the very bottom of the table: China came in at 175; North Korea at 179.
Patrick Zoll is chair of the Information Subcommittee of the Freedom of Press Committee.
