Special Intelligence Protection Act and Mass Media

* Written by Yoichi TAKAHASHI, PPPC Chairman / Kaetsu University Professor 

 The special intelligence protection bill was finally approved in the

Diet. I think there should have been more time for discussions,

however, what came to my mind through watching media reports more was

the way media should be.

 The reasons mass media, including major papers and TVs, opposed to

the legislation were (according to Japan Newspaper Association); (1)

that the administrative organs can designate certain inconvenient

information as special intelligence arbitrarily, (2) that the stricter

punishment has possibility of excessively withering the public

servants’ attitude toward information disclosure, (3) because the

scope of ‘overly inappropriate means (to obtain intelligence

information)’ is undefined and it is up to the operation of

administrative organizations, it may hinder information disclosure or

may even infringe the freedom of press guaranteed by the Constitution.

 Nonetheless, they do not comprise reasons for opposing against the

legislation. They sound as if the intelligence protection legislation

will create new secret information, but it is a misunderstanding.

 In fact, the special intelligence, as the name already indicates, is

constituting a part of general secrets stipulated in the national

public servants act (the duty of confidentiality) and information

disclosure act that provides opening of information other than

confidential information. To rephrase, the special intelligence

protection legislation is part of the national public servants act and

the information disclosure act.

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