FOCUS: Hatoyama yet to realize opening access to press conferences+

TOKYO, Dec. 31 Kyodo -
After just three months in office, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has already
come under fire for having reneged on some of his campaign pledges, but one
other promise he has yet to realize is to take the lead in opening up key press
clubs to a broader section of the media.

Opening up the clubs was not a pledge Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan made
in its manifesto, but before its sweeping success in the August election
Hatoyama had promised to open the clubs to reporters from magazines,
Internet-based media and other outlets, who had not been allowed to attend
press conferences at government offices, if his party came to power.
Immediately after Hatoyama launched his Cabinet, some members such as Foreign
Minister Katsuya Okada and Shizuka Kamei, minister in charge of banking and
postal services, began making their press briefings accessible to more media
organizations and freelance journalists, while the 11-year-old DPJ, which seeks
to increase transparency and information disclosure, has granted all
journalists access to its press conferences for quite some time.
But despite persistent calls for opening up the club at the prime minister's
office, it has remained restricted for the past three months.
Tetsuo Jimbo, editor in chief of Internet-based news broadcaster Videonews.com,
feels frustrated at the slow handling of the issue by the Hatoyama government,
but also accuses mainstream newspapers, TV broadcasters and other traditional
media outlets of blocking the process.
Jimbo, a former Associated Press reporter, argues that such mainstream outlets
view emerging Internet-based media as a ''threat'' that could collectively eat
away at the existing media's advertising revenues, which have already been
plunging amid the growth in Internet businesses.
In fact, many major Japanese daily newspapers have struggled with sluggish
earnings in recent years, largely blaming a hefty decline in advertising
revenues.
The Asahi Shimbun suffered its first-ever consolidated net loss in fiscal 2008
ended March 2009, while The Nikkei business daily also saw a group loss in the
January-June period of 2009, falling into the red for the first time since it
started compiling consolidated earnings in 2000.
In an interview with Kyodo News, Jimbo stressed that attending a press
conference should not be ''a privilege'' and that credentials for attending
press conferences must be granted unconditionally.
''The more voices, the better -- that is the fundamental idea in a democratic
society,'' Jimbo said. ''Journalism is not private property, but the
public's.''
Under Japan's press club system, major newspapers, wire services and TV
broadcasters, which belong to specific associations such as the Japan Newspaper
Publishers and Editors Association, are given access to press conferences and
other information distributed by government ministries and agencies.
According to some reporters working at the press club of the premier's office,
some members -- TV stations in particular -- have been sensitive and implicitly
opposed to opening the club to Internet-based media outlets, apparently out of
fear that they may be deprived of their long-standing cash-cow privilege of
airing footage from press conferences.
Keiichi Katsura, a leading researcher in the field of journalism and mass
communications in Japan, warns that in order to have the press clubs open up,
journalists must take the initiative, otherwise information might be controlled
by the authorities.
Journalists should not let authorities decide who can or cannot attend their
press conferences or when press conferences should be held, Katsura said.
''They must protect the rights of their peers on their own,'' he said, while
also maintaining that the existence of the press club system itself should not
be challenged.
Concerns are also growing over the quality of journalists at the press club.
Junichi Fujimoto, a freelance political journalist, accuses reporters at large
media organizations of having become no more than cogs in a machine.
He says they appear to focus more on taking down notes on their personal
computers and sending memos to their senior colleagues than on investigative
reporting.
''Because of the deterioration in quality, the journalists seem to cling to the
press club in order to survive,'' Fujimoto said recently at the Foreign
Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. ''It seems to me that they are in a
dilemma.''
Katsura shared his concern. ''The reporters depend too much on the press club
system,'' he said.
Hatoyama vowed again in late December to open up the press clubs, saying at a
press conference that he is sorry for having been slow in dealing with the
issue.
''My determination remains unchanged over the matter, although you may not
believe what I say,'' the prime minister said in responding to a freelance
reporter who accused him of having done nothing to open up the clubs.
Hatoyama hastily held the briefing at a hotel in Tokyo instead of at his office
to apologize for a political funding scandal involving his former aides. He
allowed any journalist to attend it, saying he intended to deal with the matter
as a lawmaker, not as the prime minister.
''I have already made the arrangements so that the press clubs can be more open
next year,'' he said. ''I feel sorry that we could not have done it sooner
because of various circumstances including space.''
One of the benefits of having a new DPJ government is more disclosure and
transparency, as illustrated by its efforts to disclose the budget compilation
process, Jimbo said, adding that the press club system should also be reviewed
from that perspective.
==Kyodo