Posts Tagged ‘Japan’
April 19th, 2010
According to Japanese newspaper
Asahi Shimbun the
Chinese Central Propaganda Department has
issued guidelines on reporting of the Qinghai earthquake disaster. All internal news items circulated within mainland China are to be approved by state officials before publishing, and can only focus on positive aspects of the relief effort.
Western media has already been more critical, focussing on aspects such as the
unrecognised efforts of the 200 Tibetan monks who were banned from accessing certain areas of the city, instead concentrating on helping the rural population whose houses suffered the most damage. Other aspects that have hampered the rescue operation include delays in the arrival of aid packages and the
altitude sickness experienced by many workers not native to the area. In a similar twist to the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, people have again been questioning why only government buildings have remained standing,
whilst schools and homes have suffered the most destruction. Chinese news channels have been banned from reporting on these aspects of the disaster.
April 13th, 2010
A Japanese cameraman for Reuters,
Hiro Muramoto, was fatally shot in the chest whilst covering protests in Bangkok on 10 April. It is not apparent which side was responsible for the shooting, as Thai police used
rubber bullets, tear gas and fired live ammunition into the air,
whilst red shirt protesters were also accused of firing live rounds and grenades. The
Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have issued a statement calling for an independent investigation of Muramoto’s death.
April 6th, 2010
Kosuke Tsuneoka, a freelance Japanese journalist who has been
missing since March 31, has been found imprisoned in the province of Baghlan,
according to a local Afghan reporter on Sunday. The Afghan authorities say that they were not aware of
Tsuneoka’s presence in the country until his disappearance received publicity, it has been suggested he did not have the right visa/accreditation.
March 19th, 2010
An amendment to youth welfare legislation set to go before the Tokyo Metropolitan General Assembly today could potentially ban all provocative visual depictions of
“nonexistent minors”. The action is part of an attempt to crackdown on child pornography, but
Japanese Manga artists and the online community have criticised lawmakers actions. They claim that such terms are open to interpretation, and would infringe on their freedom of expression.
August 20th, 2009
A Japanese horror film entitled Grotesque has been refused an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification. BBFC director David Cooke said that he and other colleagues had made the decision as “the chief pleasure of the film seemed to be the spectacle of sadism for its own sake.” The last film that the BBFC turned down for an 18 certificate was 2004’s Murder Set Pieces. Read more here
August 14th, 2009
A group of South Korean citizens have filed a lawsuit against a Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, for what they claimed to be a misreport. A total of 1,886 people Thursday filed a suit against the paper for a report in July last year for misquoting President Lee Myung-bak. In the suit, they asked the daily to pay 4.11 million won in compensation and print a correction. Read more here
June 8th, 2009
One of Japan’s software rating organisations will no longer support the sale of simulated rape games such as “RapePlay” in the country, following protests from civil rights campaigners in the US. Read more
here
