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Forum News
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Congratulations to VAWW NET Japan on the victory in the
legal battle against NHK! |
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Tomoko Kashiwazaki, APWLD Programme Assistant
On January 29, 2007, VAWW NET Japan won a victory in the 5 year legal battle against the Japanese State TV Corporation NHK for mispresentation and misinformation on the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery held in December in 2000 in Tokyo. VAWW NET Japan, a Tokyo-based women's organisation working towards justice for the "comfort women" - victims of the wartime sexual slavery by the Japanese military, has argued that the NHK documentary broadcast on January 30, 2001 misrepresented the purpose of the Tribunal and questioned whether, in fact, Japan's military perpetrated wartime sexual slavery. programme; and legal as well as moral obligation of the media of accountability in the process of producing the TV programme. The judgment said: The Tokyo High Court overruled a lower court decision and issued a compensation order for NHK to pay two million yen in damages to VAWW NET Japan. The presiding Judge Toshifumi Minami acknowledged the last minutes changes in the documentary were made in response to comments by Shinzo Abe (a deputy chief cabinet secretary at the time, a current Japanese Prime Minister and a leader of the controversial panel on education) and other NHK budget-approving politicians as well as rightists' violent protestors rushing into the NHK office. Abe instructed the NHK top executives to make the programme 'more objective'. As a result, the TV programme suffered political interference as it was about the Japanese Emperor's responsibility for war crimes, "comfort women" as wartime military sex slaves, and feminism - all are taboo issues in NHK. Yayori Matsui, the VAWW Net Japan founder and an APWLD member, was one of the organisers of the Tribunal. She was outraged and disappointed by the TV programme and filed the case against NHK. The 2000 Tribunal was widely reported by the international media while Japanese media did not give it high visibility. The NHK TV programme was expected to educate the public on the Japanese wartime sexual slavery - unpopular topic in the Japanese society. An anonymous letter from a staff of NHK also encouraged Yayori to fight for disclosing the truth. After the death of Yayori, Rumiko Nishino, the present co-chair of the VAWW NET Japan, succeeded her case. The focus of the court ruling was how to interpret the right to edit in relation to the right to selfdetermination of the interviewees for the TV programme. It was a groundbreaking judgment in Japan in terms of the two points: it recognised the right to self-determination of the interviewees of the programme; and legal as well as moral obligation of the media of accountability in the process of producing the TV programme. The judgment said:
A driving force which made this judgment possible as well as one of the outputs of fighting the case is intermovement collaboration and alliance building among journalists, academics, feminist and civil groups. The group of lawyers formed for the case was always willing to participate in the meetings and study workshops explaining the legal aspects of the case. The issue of Japanese state responsibility for its wartime sexual slavery has been shared by wider social movements through tackling different issues raised in those meetings, such as taboo and self-censorship in the media, the power structure around the editorial rights in the media, political pressure on the media on deployment of Japanese troops in Iraq, etc. A member of the Japan Journalist Conference who have been involved in supporting the case pointed out that the judgment is still ambiguous in terms of political interference, protection and limitation of right to edit and possibility of abuse of interviewees' right to expect, which needs to be developed by mobilizing broader social movement in relation to promoting media independence, people's right to know and freedom of expression. Rutsuko, leading VAWW NET Japan with Rumiko, said it was a step forward for promoting democracy in the media by challenging taboo and political pressure. Rumiko admitted she had doubts about the judges' independence and was surprised with the final judgment despite the fact that the politician who interfered in the programme then now heads the government and 75% of the cabinet members are rightists on education or history. However, the legal battle is not over as NHK appealed to the Supreme Court. "It was survivors who were insulted by the TV programme and we will continue to do our best to fight for survivors in the Supreme Court", said Rumiko. Resources on the issue: Documentary, Breaking the History of Silence - Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery available on DVD for sale. Please write to Tomoko at tomoko@apwld.org For news article on the court case, http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=62521 http://www.indymedia.org/or/2007/02/879825.shtml For more information on the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's MilitarySexualSlavery : http://www1.jca.apc.org/vaww-net-japan/english/ On the actions taken and survivors in Korea: http://www.womenandwar.net/english/index.php George Washington University lists a collection of media outlets on this verdict: https://memoryreconciliation.wordpress.com/ For more information on this lawsuit: http://www1.jca.apc.org/vaww-net-japan/english/backlash/mediasabotage.html . |
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