TOKYO, June 9, 2021—When the dust settled after Japan Hosted this summer’s Tokyo Olympics (still a big If), the world media should find Japan a country devoid of the freedom of press that already had been threatened over the past decade of former PM Shinzo Abe’s reign.
On June 8 (Tuesday), Seiko Hashimoto, the Tokyo Olympic/Paralympic Committee chair, told reporters that all foreign media representatives shall be banned from visiting locations that were registered and approved by the committee in advance during the 14 days after their arrival in Japan. Media reps, she said, shall be ‘controlled’ by smart phone GPS functions, as well as that their places of stay shall be restricted to 150 hotels assigned to them by the committee alone.
In email exchanges over the past week between the committee and the Foreign Press in Japan (FPIJ), a grouping bundling Japan-based reporters, photographers, video crews from the foreign media based on Japan, the committee demanded that all FPIJ member names listed and all of them are encouraged to be vaccinated and other details.
’full names*, nationality and media affiliation.
– Staff must be *accredited with the IOC *(not Tokyo 2020).
– Staff must be *resident in Japan* (native or expat).
– Staff should be *willing to receive* a Covid-19 vaccination.’
Bottom-line: Media reps are likely to be limited or denied access to interviewing athletes and others, as well as covering Olympic events in and outside Game venues, such as those that criticize the Japanese government and hosts, plus covering demonstrations against the games and scenes of ordinary Japanese folks’ views.
If the games can be held and completed as envisioned by the current PM, Suga, it can instill confidence in the Japanese politicians and bureaucracy for further media control. Japanese media, which are sponsors of the Olympics, have been reporting the games in a Shakespearean, torn-apart tone. Understandably. When the games are over, however, they will de decouple from the government and the national event, and so should find themselves dwarfed by the next sheet of media gagging and thus criticizing the government, bureaucracy and pro-government businesses a much harder act to follow.
The media should become like the eve of Tojo declaring war against the United States: reporting only what are fed them by the government.
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Insight Into the Future