Japanese media organizations appear to be in bed with the government and TEPCO

[NNN0LHI]

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110503f1.html

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Tight-lipped Tepco lays bare exclusivity of press clubs


By KANAKO TAKAHARA
Staff writer

It was a shocking revelation for a majority of the people in Japan, but maybe not so for major media organizations.

Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co., admitted in a news conference on March 30 that on the 11th, the day the twin disasters hit the Tohoku region and crippled Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, he was traveling to Beijing with retired Japanese journalists, expenses for which were partially paid by the utility.

"We probably paid more than our share" of the travel fee, Katsumata said.

Internet reporter Ryusaku Tanaka was shouted down by other journalists as he tried to question the Tepco executive.

The incident laid bare the oft-assumed cozy relationship between Tepco and major Japanese media organizations — members of the exclusive "kisha" (press) club that critics claim are preventing reporters from asking the utility tough questions about the nuclear accident. Similar complicity has long been assumed at other press clubs attached to the nation's various bureaucratic bodies.

[Fumesucker]

1. Good thing nothing like that happens here in the USA..

We have the freest press money can buy.

[Bonobo]

2. Is there some information you feel is being covered up?

If so, what is it?

[NNN0LHI]

3. What was the question about that the state media shouted down the Internet reporter for asking?

Do you know?

Do you care?

Don

[Bonobo]

4. Why are you answering my question with a question?

What is the lack of information you are alluding to?

There is an abundance of info on everything regarding soil radiation content, food radiation content, water temps, water levels, water radiation, and everything else you can think of.

So what do you want to know more of?

Sounds more like you just are trying to prove how bad Japan is because you have preconceived ideas.

Just answer the question. What do you want to know more about?

The amount of info provided is staggering and deep and readily available.

Did it ever occur to you that he was shouted down because he was an "internet reporter" and established reporters don't like their territory being invaded? THAT seems more likely than your hypothesis.

[NNN0LHI]

5. You didn't know

That is what I thought.

I want to know what is going on.

Appears you are content with hearing and believing whatever the government tells you.

That line of thinking is exactly what got us all into this mess.

Don

[Bonobo]

6. As I thought.

No matter how much info you get, and without even the vaguest notion of what more you need, you are all to ready to believe that some magical piece of info is being hidden -even though all evidence points to the fact that it isnot true.

A leak develops. you hear about it, right?

If there was a blackout, where is that info coming from?

[Bonobo]

7. By the way, you have NO idea what information we are receiving in Japan.

Can you read this google search for news of "Fukushima" that I just grabbed?

http://www.google.co.jp/#hl=ja&q=%E7%A6%8F%E5%B3%B6&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=nws:1&source=og&sa=N&tab=wn&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=8ce1910aa8ba9999


Well I can.

I know the information coming out here and you don't.

Did it ever occur to you that only the English speaking world is getting a shortage of info (if they are)?

This is Japan. They speak Japanese. Wester media does not. That is, ummm, a bottleneck of info.

[Aerows]

8. Heh - I can read it, too

I use Google Chrome and let it automatically translate it for me. Sometimes the language is a bit awkward and you have to piece together the meaning, but you can mostly get the gist of it :)

[NNN0LHI]

11. Here is the question the reporter asked in English

From the article cited:

Freelance journalist Takashi Uesugi, a former reporter for The New York Times in Tokyo, said he was astonished that no one had asked Tepco about whether a plutonium leak from the stricken plant was detected until he raised the question on March 27.

Experts have warned that plutonium may have been released from the No. 3 reactor, where MOX fuel is stored, due to a hydrogen explosion on March, 14 in addition to radioactive iodine and cesium. MOX fuel is a mix of uranium and plutonium oxide.

"For two weeks, not one reporter asked about plutonium in the press conference," said Uesugi. "When I raised the question, Tepco said it didn't have a detector to check it."

A day after the unthinkable revelation, Tepco announced it detected a small amount of plutonium from the soil on the plant's premises after it sent soil samples to an outside organization for analysis a week earlier.

[Bonobo]

12. Google search will not allow me to go back earlier to check and see, but...

I was able to search back as early as April 14 and got this news article talking about the detection of plutonium.

http://response.jp/article/2011/04/15/154899.html

This is from 1 month ago, so I am still having a hard time seeing what coverup you think is occurring.

[NNN0LHI]

13. Tepco said it didn't have a detector to check for plutonium

Next day they reported finding plutonium.

Yea, everything is on the up and up alright.

I got two grandsons who have been drinking powdered milk for two months now. I would really like to know how much longer that is needed.

Don

[Bonobo]

14. Powdered milk in Illinois?

Perhaps you are overreacting slightly.

[bananas]

16. You called at least one report "fifth-hand nonsense" after it had been widely reported

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=993083&mesg_id=993493

Bonobo (1000+ posts) Sat Apr-30-11 09:00 AM

12. Please provide a proper link. We can hardly believe that kind of 5th hand nonsense.

If the government did such a thing and announced it (or Der Spiegel found out mysteriously), then how is it possible that there is no report elsewhere. '

The link that Ichingcarpenter provides says nothing about increasing the safe levels for children.

But it was alredy widely reported around the rest of the world,
including DU's Latest Breaking News forum and the Greatest page:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4832997

kpete (1000+ posts) Fri Apr-29-11 06:04 PM

Government Adviser Quits Post to Protest Japan's Policy on Radiation Exposure for Fukushima Schools

Edited on Fri Apr-29-11 06:07 PM by kpete
Source: Science Magazine

Government Adviser Quits Post to Protest Japan's Policy on Radiation Exposure for Fukushima Schools
by Dennis Normile on 29 April 2011, 1:35 PM

TOKYO—A prominent Japanese radiation safety specialist has resigned his governmental advisory post in protest over what he calls "inexcusable" standards for school children in Fukushima Prefecture. The Yomiuri Online news web site reported in Japanese this evening that Toshiso Kosako, a radiation safety expert at the University of Tokyo, feels the standards are too lenient and that his advice has been ignored.

On 19 April, the ministry of education announced a "provisional idea" for schoolyards contaminated by radiation emanating from the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The ministry cited a recommendation by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), based in Ottawa, Canada, that sets an acceptable level of between 1 and 20 millisieverts (mSv) per year for individuals. In its Application of the Commission's Recommendations to the Protection of People Living in Long-term Contaminated Areas After a Nuclear Accident or a Radiation Emergency , ICRP recommendation reads:

***The reference level for the optimization of protection of people living in contaminated areas should be selected in the lower part of the 1-20 mSv/year band.

Read more: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/04/government-adviser-quits-post-to.html?ref=hp

Alert | Hide Thread | Net recommendation: +17 votes (Your vote: +1)

[Aerows]

9. Using the link that Bonobo provided and Chrome to translate

It looks like reactor 3 is leaking in the ocean again.

Here's the translation:

"No. 3 in the first nuclear power plant in Fukushima hole in the concrete near the water intake to capture (pit), the influx of water containing radioactive materials, announced that it was confirmed that leaked into the sea. Cesium 134 and 32,000 times the legal limit of concentration of the seawater was detected radioactive cesium-137 and 22,000 times."

[Bonobo]

10. Well done. nt

[Octafish]

15. Just like here.

The CIA and the Media