This session deals with the role of the media within the Information Disclosure Act. Publicizing information to the public is related closely to the freedom to express, and as the media plays an important role in spreading information disclosure to the public, journalists from Thailand, Japan and experts in the field of media law and moral spoke of their opinions.

1 In The Beginning

In the beginning, the coordinator explained the points to be discussed in this session.

The first point is to find out how journalists have made use of the information disclosure act in the search for facts and illegal acts by authorities. Or on the other hand, any specific reasons as to why they have avoided utilization of the system due to its faults or demerits. As a background, in the United States’ Free Information Act (the leading nation in information disclosure) regulates that in the case where there is an ‘urgent demand by one who works in the field to spread information to make known to the public, the federal government’s activities, there is a ‘journalist’s priority clause’ to ‘give priority access to information in demand’. Also, in Sweden’s ‘Freedom of the Press’ regulating the laws of information disclosure, there is an exemption clause that deals with the government officials’ information disclosure to journalists. Unfortunately, in Asian countries, regulations guaranteeing similar rights cannot be found.

The second point is how the mass media as representatives of the public right to knowledge and experts in information gathering utilize the information disclosure system. In the process of creating an information disclosure system and observing how it is to be applied, there are people who voice the importance of the media, and the media is expected to play a key role; it is necessary to find out what exactly is expected of the media and what have they done so far.

Each panelist gave a report on the points above.

２　The Media and Information Disclosure Act in Thailand

First of all Mr. Chongittarvorn pointed out that when the information disclosure act was established in Thailand three years ago, journalists did not favor the regulation. This is because journalists preferred to use information pipelines and personal contacts to access back door information. In Thailand, journalists use personal contacts to gain secret information from bureaucrats, and some of this information take publishers by surprise. For this reason, in the first stages of the enactment of the information disclosure act, journalists feared they will no longer be able to use personal contacts, or of a situation where another journalist gains access to a systematic information disclosure.

T here are people who point out that the media has a role to spread the information disclosure act to the public. But in Thailand, it was a lady’s request for information disclosure that in effect made the public aware of the system. A mother requested information disclosure to find out the reason behind her daughter’s failing an elementary school entrance exam. The media took this case up only after she made the demand. If it were not for her efforts, journalists would not have followed this particular case. Furthermore, in the end the journalists themselves have utilized the information disclosure act to access the same information as this mother, and urged the usage of this law. This case showed that the information disclosure act is not only for journalists, but it is a law established for the people; it has played a significant role in spreading the information disclosure act. In Thailand, according to unofficial information, it is estimated that about 800 thousand people in one way or another have used the information disclosure act. This estimation is based on the fact that when a citizen visits a government organ to submit documents, the Thai government considers it as an application for the information disclosure act.

Journalists ought to utilize the information disclosure act more, but they still value personal contacts. This is because journalists are not patient and wish to obtain information as quickly as possible. In other words, information is obtainable as long as one has personal contacts. Journalists also have the habit to respond to crisis immediately, and are not prone reach the point of utilizing the information disclosure act.

Another problem is that this regulation is too complicated. In Thailand, information related to the royal family is not in the scope of the information disclosure act. Even if one wishes to access information concerning the royal family, one is required to wait for 75 years or 150 years until the confidential information is absolved, and becomes an historical fact.

3　Utilizing the Information Disclosure Act to Write Articles

Mr. Nakajima then spoke of the Japanese press and the information disclosure act based on his own experiences. In Japan during the 30 to 40 years of economic growth, there were many cases of official corruption, environmental pollution, and harm through medicine. The media covered these cases, but in order to protect the enterprises, the government refused to publicize information, and thus the media repeatedly urged the government to give information. The presses have also held various campaigns to urge the government for information. For example, since the 80’s, Asahi Newspaper introduced the effects of the information disclosure act in the United States and Europe under the headline of ‘An Open Government’, and pointed out how little information Japanese government offers to the public.

In 1983, the Kanagawa became the first prefecture in Japan to establish an information disclosure regulation, and since then a number of regulations were established. However it was the citizens who actually utilized and gave result to the regulations. A journalist utilized the information disclosure act and wrote an article about a certain policeman who was involved in a wiretap incident, but this is a rare case. Journalists gather vital information by contacting the source; they believe the more information they can obtain the more talented they are, so journalists had no interest in utilizing the information disclosure act.

However, during the past few years, journalists began to make use of the information disclosure act. It began when the Citizen Ombudsman requested information disclosure from prefectures across the nation to bring to the open the illegal acts of bureaucrats in using expenditures. Up to that point, journalists who played the role of introducing the information disclosure act to the public, began to utilize the regulation themselves to find out facts for the purpose of reporting. In recent years, some journalists wrote articles in local newspapers about facts they found out through the system.

I have utilized the United States’ Free Information Act. The first time I used it was some time ago, when the current president of Korea, Kim Dejun was a leader of the opposition party. While staying in a hotel in Tokyo, he was kidnapped and what had happened became clear when the information concerning the incident was disclosed in the United States. The Kyodo Tsushin Washington correspondent of the time requested information disclosure to the United States’ Department of State; two consecutive American ambassadors to Korea gathered information from the Korean government and wrote a report to the Secretary of State. This document was disclosed and it came clear that the Korean central information bureau caused the incident, and the name of the leader was publicized. Having witnessed the effectiveness of the Free Information Act, I have utilized the system myself. I will introduce the following two cases as an example.

The first one is a case that took place three, four years ago. When I was reviewing the Japanese/American guideline, the problem arose of an American aircraft carrier, Independence’s call at Hokkaido’s Otaru port. I happened to hear from a local acquaintance of mine, that the head of the chamber of commerce and industry is heading towards the American embassy. Thus I made a request to the American Embassy for information disclosure of this matter. It took about nine months before I received several documents, but from them I found out that it was an act of negotiation by the American consul general of Hokkaido with the economic world, Embassy, and American Navy to hold a welcoming event for the Independence. Among the disclosed documents, there was a memo written to the ambassador by the American consul general during the meeting. Based on this information, I have written an article to introduce movements in the economic world, and the fact that members of the American Navy and the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force have participated in the meeting.

The other case was when I gathered information related to the Jacob disease. There was a possibility of catching Jacob disease through the man-made koumaku used in brain surgery, but despite having knowledge of this, the Japanese Ministry of Public Welfare was too slow to make up a counter plan. For this matter, a large number of people were infected and the case was put on trial in Tokyo and Ohtsu. As I did some research on the Jacob disease, I found out through a document by the FDA, that a year before Japan worked out a countermeasure, the Jacob disease was examined in Europe after the outbreak of the mad cow disease. There they found out patients were not infected through the mad cow disease, but reports said that a vast number of people were infected during surgery. I also found out that ten years before Japan took measures, the United states had addressed to the world that man-made memberance is dangerous. I then requested the American government information on any documents of inquiry from the Japanese government after the warning was addressed. A few months later I received a large number of information. This case makes us aware that the Ministry of Public Welfare has either over sighted, or ignored the first warning by the United States.

4 Journalism in the Era of Information Disclosure

Mr. Tajima spoke about the role and issues of journalism within the information disclosure system. There are two aspects when dealing with the theme of ‘Media and the Information Disclosure’. The first aspect is, how journalism is affected by the improvement of the information disclosure system, and what is the role of journalism in its relation to the regulation. The other aspect is the issue of securing transparency of the media itself and information disclosure.

Journalism in the information disclosure era is required to change its form rather than continuing on with what it has been. Most importantly, systems hindering the function of information disclosure, and journalism that has no meaning in the era information disclosure ought to be overcome. There is for example the press corps. This in itself is not a bad organization, but does the press corps really fit into the system of information disclosure? The journalist’s club is operated in a very closed manner, and limited members of the media can join. Recently there have been movements to open its doors to foreign media and newspapers other than the Japan Newspaper Society. However, there is a rule where only members can enter press interviews held by the press corps. This kind of organization does not seem to move towards the system in which a large number of the public shares information. In a time when improvements are being made in the system of disclosure, journalism should not limit the access but instead change its form to promote the system.

The other point is, ways to cover and report are also required to change. Toshio Hara created the word ‘Announced Journalism’, and it refers to a type of journalism that reports information from the authorities’ news source immediately and in the same form to the public. This kind of function is necessary, but when the information disclosure system begins to allow more and more information to be shared among citizens, the act of simply reporting news coming directly from the authorities will not be enough as a function of journalism. Just reporting exactly what the news source announces is not sufficient for the survival of journalism and thus a reform will be required. What is expected of the professional journalist will be the ability to analyze information obtained by the information disclosure act, to do thorough research and analyze the various facts that become clear and to be a clear-cut commentator. With the enactment of the information disclosure act, the profession of journalists will not die out, but instead his/her ability will be tested in the true sense.

Overcoming the problems of announced journalism is linked closely to overcoming the limitations of the information disclosure act. The enactment of the information disclosure act will not lead to the publication of all information, but information of various areas may not be publicized due to the system of non-disclosure. The information disclosure system may thus lead to a situation where citizens are denied access to information that should be publicized. Also, the information disclosure act is a system where recorded information is made open to the public, and it is impossible for example to demand information formed in the mind of a politician. Approaching such information is a role to be assumed specifically by an expert journalist. There could also be demerits posed by the establishment of the information disclosure act. The information disclosure act could be used as an excuse to limiting and regulating coverage; in the case where information is denied access due to the information disclosure system, journalists may not receive that information. Essentially, the function of journalism and the system of information disclosure belong to a different category; no matter what information disclosure regulations come about, journalists are expected to cover and report important information thoroughly. In that sense, journalism also has an important function to fight against the misuse of the information disclosure act.

5　Journalism wanted by the citizens

Mr. Ha from PSPD talked about the two ways of getting information to write articles for the Korean mass media. One is to join the press corps and write articles based on the sources provided by the government. Most of the articles in Korea are written using this route. The other is to find and get a scoop yourself. But it is still rare that one would write an article taking fully advantage of the Information Disclosure Act.

The features of Korea is that there are grass-roots movements to change the　traditional practices of the mass media. For example, Citizen's Movement for Speech Reform does not read the Chosun Ilbo the paper that is published the biggest number of copies in Korea. In addition, they are trying to make a law to regain editing rights back to the citizens, and make movements to delete the press corps. If the number of these kinds of grass-roots movements increases, the Korean Mass Media might change. Especially the movement to delete the press corps is hard to stop since such a big amount of information is fed through the internet.

Taking this advice, Tajima’s opinion is that it is necessary that information the press corps and the mass media hold should be provided more freely to the citizens rather than to delete the press corps. The media should not be open only to government organizations, but also to the citizens and society. In Europe such discussions occurred previously. In the UK the Information Disclosure Act was put into practice last year. However this law also applies to public broadcasting stations such as BBC. In addition, an organization called Council Europe suggested the media be more open to the public in 1994. The organization suggested each country make a law to restrict the media from having secrecies.

The reason why the media should be more open to citizens is because it influences the public opinion greatly. The citizens have a right to know more about the structure and policies of the medium that a great part of their vision is based on. Another is that the media ignores the many kinds of views. A group of people or a single force controls the media and the diversity of society’s opinions are not reflected. In order to find out if the diverse public opinions are reflected, we should know who controls and influences the media. To provide the real voice of society, the media should not restrict basic information available to the citizens.

To this Nakajima’s opinion was that we should debate what measures we could take to make that change since it also touches the problems such as concealment of the source and editing rights. Nowadays, in newspapers, the reader’s problems, opinion and debates appear more and more and the problem Tajima pointed out has been considered.

6 The importance of Information Disclosure Act.

To conclude, Mr. Chongittavorn pointed out two major problems among the many important things that were discussed.

One is that the openness of the media should be structured since many journalists themselves have something to do with a great number of corruption cases and scandals. For example, in the previously mentioned entrance examination of an elementary school case, we know that the 2 senior editors used there advantages to put their children in the schools. Second, democracy is extremely important, and the Information Disclosure Act promotes democracy and an open to the public government. In the investigation project of Information Disclosure Act in ASEAN countries, it has been made clear that there is no connection between economic development and information disclosure. For example, it was as hard in Singapore to get information as in Vietnam. The development of economy does not necessarily promote democracy, but information disclosure does.

In Thailand, the number of people interested in the information of the government is increasing. An open society is not about the number of scandals revealed by the journalists. In an open society each citizen is given an equal opportunity. An example is that a pregnant woman went to the hospital in the country side but couldn’t stay there since all the beds were occupied. So the woman called a radio station and they aired her situation all throughout Bangkok. Over 10 hospitals called and asked her to stay with them since there were beds available. The meaning of this example is that by disclosing the information, people knew what was going on and the right measures were taken. Citizens are given a more equal opportunity.

Lastly the coordinator concluded that through the Information Disclosure Act, if the media worked more with the NGOs and citizens to make the society more open to the public it would become an even better system.

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