Jap lawmaker defends calls for press curbs

TOKYO: A conservative lawmaker from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party on Tuesday restated controversial views suggesting newspapers hostile to his hawkish military policy should be punished.
Hideo Onishi, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was last week reprimanded by the party after he and other LDP lawmakers held an “unofficial meeting” and called for restrictions on press that oppose the government’s policy.
Abe, a robust nationalist, has pushed bills to loosen restrictions that have bound the so-called Self-Defence Forces to a narrowly defensive role for decades.
“I think some mass media should be punished” if they criticise the bills, Onishi told reporters in parliament, defending last week’s calls for media restrictions.
“I personally think (companies) should refrain voluntarily from giving advertisement to media reporting wrong information,” Onishi said without elaborating.
Abe was forced to go on the defensive last week over the remarks, which some saw as the latest in a series of episodes that have suggested his party’s hostility to traditional press freedoms.
“Freedom of the press is the base of democracy,” Abe told parliament. “Paying respect to that notion is a matter of course.”
Opposition lawmakers and liberal dailies have stepped up criticism after legal experts said the proposed security legislation, which would allow Japan’s military to fight in defence of allies, was unconstitutional.
Late last year the LDP — which, as a political party plays no regulatory role in broadcasting — also drew criticism after writing to broadcast networks urging “fair” coverage ahead of a general election, in what was seen as an attempt to bring the media to heel.