Fuk-‘hush’-ima: Japan’s new state secrets law gags whistleblowers, raises press freedom fears

[unhappycamper]

http://rt.com/news/japan-state-secrets-law-712/



Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (3RD-L) speaks during a joint-meeting by Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters and Nuclear Power Disaster Management Council at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo

Fuk-‘hush’-ima: Japan’s new state secrets law gags whistleblowers, raises press freedom fears
Published time: October 25, 2013 09:02
Edited time: October 27, 2013 22:19

Many issues of national importance to Japan, probably including the state of the Fukushima power plant, may be designated state secrets under a new draft law. Once signed, it could see whistleblowers jailed for up to 10 years.

Japan has relatively lenient penalties for exposing state secrets compared to many other nations, but that may change with the introduction of the new law. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has agreed on draft legislation on the issue on Friday and expects the parliament to vote on it during the current session, which ends on December 6.

With a comfortable majority in both chambers, the ruling coalition bloc would see no problems overcoming the opposition. Critics say the new law would give the executive too much power to conceal information from the public and compromise the freedom of the press.

Currently only issues of defense can be designated state secret in Japan, and non-military leakers face a jail term of up to one year. Defense officials may be sentenced to five years for exposing secrets, or 10 years, if the classified information they leaded came from the US military.

[chervilant]

1. Is anyone surprised by this?

Fukushima, whale hunting, and The Cove -- huge blemishes on the "face" of Japan.

[Nihil]

6. Exactly right. (n/t)

[newfie11]

2. they decided to try the American way

I guess it's their turn to keep secrets from the people. God help the people.

[truebrit71]

3. How 'western' of them...

...of course if they were British they would simply bury the story and then change the name of the site of the accident in the hope that people would forget that it happened...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire

[newfie11]

4. They did a good job of burying this

I had no idea. Thanks for the link.

[Nihil]

7. Well, they tried ...

... but anyone brought up in the North West was very well aware of Windscale
(and tended not to use "Sellafield" without a cross reference to the former).

That's a trifle different from blasting the whistle-blower laws into history
(albeit still consistent with the overall "Security State in CYA mode" issue
of the OP). They've obviously learned from their failures ... well, their PR failures
if not their technology ones ...

[MisterP]

5. the Yakuza Party strikes again...