Japan reacts with censorship to critical reporting

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

fukushima---meltdown-by-bakterje-d3bq4o4 Free journalists from abroad are being denied access to the press conferences. Representatives of Japanese media get briefed twice daily while the foreign correspondents only be given briefings once a week.

At the same time have telephone companies and ISPs been asked to ensure that no “false” informations get into the public domain. After all, says the Japanese government, public order and morale have to be maintained.

The government of Japan has now developed its own strategy in order to deal with the nuclear catastrophe. A speaker announced that the free journalists of the foreign media were only putting out false information and lies and were sneaking about illegally in the exclusions zone around the reactors. It seems obvious that not every journalists wants to remain dependent on the spin-doctored PR releases of the representatives of the power company which is responsible for the reactor.

As a reaction to this all online journalists and all members of the foreign press are now being locked out of the majority of press conferences. Handpicked reporters are permitted to every press conference twice daily, the rest is only permitted access once a week. Foreign journalists are briefed by government representatives only. They ask probing questions at the TEPCO events where the representatives of the mainstream media simply write down what the spokespeople tell them to write.

GOVERNMENT-CENSORSHIP-by-luvataciousskull The current state of information in Japan is about like it was in the war with the attitude that Japan is going to win World War II and journalists are told to keep stumm.

As if this was not enough the Japanese government will now act aggressively against the independent reporting. In order to keep up public order and morale all unpopular “rumors” are going to be attacked. The ministry of the interior, the police and other government agencies are now to decide what can be said openly and what not. The critical reporting by journalists, say government officials, has multiplied the damage that has been caused by the natural catastrophe many times. It is, obviously, the fault of journalists for asking questions and reporting the truth.

Internet service provider, telephone companies, cable companies and others have been warned in writing to put adequate and appropriate measures in place to suppress the illegal information. Companies are directly being requested, nay ordered, to delete information or to block them, in order so that the information will not get into the Internet and be circulated by the media and wire agencies.

Everything, the government has said, that will serve to uphold the morale and public order is permitted and encouraged. In clear language what this means is that every telecommunications provider in Japan has been ordered to block all independent and thus critical information and to stop journalists from transmitting this information to the outside and from reaching the eyes and ears of the rest of the world' and also the Japanese people.

The government of Japan tries everything to keep the truth from reaching the world and its own people and it wants to keep its people from rising up against the falsehoods and lies of the government and TEPCO, the company who owns the reactor, and keep its citizenry obedient like slaves. Spartacus, do you hear me?

© 2011