Kisha Club

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term Kisha Club ( Japanese : 記者 ク ラ ブ kisha kurabu , from the word kisha = journalist / reporter and from kurabu = club or English: Reporters 'Club ) refers to the exclusive journalists' clubs of certain news agencies, which are based on the official seat of the Japanese Prime Minister as well other government organizations at different levels in Japan have been set up in the form of media rooms.

The main task of the Kisha Clubs is to receive messages from government organizations and make them available to the public.

history

The first Kisha Club was founded in 1890 by journalists from several newspapers as the "journalist group that has access to parliament" (議会 出入 記者 団 Gikai deiri kishadan). This group of journalists demanded that the government give them the right to report from parliament and was seen as a model for other Kisha clubs.

During the Pacific War in 1941, the government established the Japanese Newspaper Union (日本 新聞 連 盟, Nihon Shinbun Renmei). Every government department had to establish a kisha club. This club became the only communication channel through which the departments relayed their messages to the public.

After World War II, the US military government reformed the structure of the Japanese government. The Kisha clubs were retained, however, because the US military government wanted to control the flow of information in Japan.

In 1962 the Association of Japanese Newspaper Publishers (日本 新聞 協会 Nihon Shinbun Kyokai) concluded an agreement on the Kisha Clubs, which obliged the management levels of the respective newspaper agencies to recognize this agreement.

daily routine

Journalists are informed daily through regular press conferences. For example, in the largest Kisha Club, the Kabinett Kisha Club, press conferences are held twice a day and are usually chaired by the cabinet secretary. Then the journalists decide alone or together with the information provider when and what is to be published and whether they disclose the identity of the provider. In addition, the journalists are not allowed to publish the news earlier than agreed, otherwise they will face sanctions.

Functions

  • The Kisha Clubs play an important role as an interface between the public and government agencies. In doing so, the clubs contribute a lot to the disclosure of public information.
  • The Kisha Clubs are usually set up by the information providers. Club members then have convenient access to information, which is then efficiently brought to the public.
  • Kisha clubs regularly organize press conferences. In doing so, they try to avoid confusion caused by unsafe information.
  • The Kisha Clubs play an important role in the international exchange of press releases. They are also used to receive important foreign guests and to prepare corresponding press conferences.

criticism

The Kisha Clubs have had a major impact on information release and media development since their inception. Initially, the clubs were a private, voluntary industry organization with the aim of making government information available to the public. This goal was achieved, but shortcomings emerged over time. Although they were supposed to protect the freedom of the press, they allowed the government to exercise some control out of consideration for social stability, thereby impairing the freedom of the press.

monopoly

Japanese government agencies generally only invite Kisha clubs to their press conferences, making the Kisha clubs an exclusive source of information for reporting on the work of the government. An analysis of the reports of the newspapers Yomiuri Shimbun , Asahi Shimbun and other papers shows that the opinion-forming newspapers are very dependent on the Kisha clubs for their information. The dependency of the political reports is between 30 and 80 percent. In comparison, the corresponding dependency in economic reporting is considerably lower and lies between 10 and 30 percent. This intelligence cartel enables government agencies to direct reporting and thereby public opinion in their favor.

Exclusion

Smaller media companies, new media, as well as internet media, freelance journalists and foreign news organizations are often prevented from joining Kisha clubs. However, this considerably impedes their access to information.

corruption

There has been criticism that the press rooms for Kisha Clubs set up by government agencies, local public institutions and the police are financed from tax revenues. The Kisha Clubs are also financially supported in other ways. The efforts of journalists to establish or maintain good (personal) relationships with politicians, in order to receive preferential information, harbor a high potential for corruption.

Damage to journalists' independence

Within the framework of the Kisha Club system, journalists tend to only summarize the information and materials communicated and only edit them to a limited extent. This harbors the risk that the journalists hardly do their own research and carry out investigations or interviews on their own initiative.

Monotony of the reports

Because the Kisha Clubs' press conferences are a major source of media coverage, Japanese coverage often lacks diversity of opinion. Furthermore, some reporting is subject to manipulation by the authorities who release this information, which means that the reporting of different media on a certain topic is very often similar in content and wording.

reform

Due to the disadvantages of the Kisha Club system, there are always voices in Japan and abroad calling for reforms. Under pressure from foreign journalists and governments, the Japanese government agreed in the 1990s to open the Kisha Club at the Japanese Foreign Ministry , the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Bank of Japan to foreign journalists. In 2002, Democratic Party Secretary-General Okada Katsumi allowed small-scale foreign journalists, as well as journalists from magazines and sports and entertainment newspapers, to attend the Democratic Party's press conference.

However, this is only a small step forward. Press freedom in Japan has not improved significantly as a result. The United Nations published a report on April 16, 2016, which stated that press freedom in Japan has been seriously threatened since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office. It is called for the Kisha Club system to be abolished entirely. In the “2016 World Press Freedom Index” ranking published by Reporters Without Borders , Japan ranks only seventy-second in the world, much lower than most other industrialized countries.

literature

  • Sven Engesser: Kisha Club System and Freedom of Information: Comparison of the Working Conditions of Foreign Correspondents in Japan and Germany . Deutscher Universitätsverlag, 2012. ISBN 978-3-83506060-9

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kaitlin Stainbrook: The Secret World of Kisha Clubs and Japanese Newspapers . In: Tofugu . February 11, 2014 ( tofugu.com [accessed January 29, 2017]).
  2. ↑ a b 傳媒 透視. Retrieved January 29, 2017 .
  3. ^ Pan, Nini: Closure and reforms of the kisha club system . In: Japanese Studies . February 2009, p. 120 .
  4. ^ Pan, Nini: Closure and reforms of the kisha club system . In: Japanese Studies . February 2009, p. 116 .
  5. ↑ Patrick Welter: Japan under Abe: Threatened press freedom . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . April 19, 2016, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed January 29, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Japan: Don't mess with “state secrets” | Reporters without borders. Retrieved January 29, 2017 (fr-fr).