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Japan Seeking to Govern Top News Web Sites
RemyBR writes "A Japanese government panel is proposing to govern "influential, widely read news-related sites as newspapers and broadcasting are now regulated."
The panel, set up by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, said Internet service providers (ISPs) should be answerable for breaches of vaguer "minimum regulations" to guard against "illegal and harmful content."
The conservative government, led by the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, is seeking to have the new laws passed by Parliament in 2010."
Japanese media Unhappy today 1984
well, at least they aren't hoping to create a new internet... just severely limit the current one. The sad thing is, I could see this plan working with the pressure on ISPs.
Governments, no matter how benign, really hate unfettered access to information.
The most discouraging part is a majority of people seem to agree ("...well, as long as it's to fight the terrorist...").
The most predictable part is someone will say "...this isn't about free speech".
A truism: "When somebody says 'this isn't about free speech', it almost certainly is".
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
It sounds like a Putin-style media. Free-press is getting harder to find in the world.
Table-ized A.I.
"The conservative government, led by the Liberal Democratic Party"
There's something a little odd about that name, don't you think?
Is there not a Japanese translation of this book?
I wonder whether there will be anyone in Japan campaigning against this, or will they just sit there and accept that restricting media is "normal"? I really hope to see some reaction against this... Does anyone know the exact motivation? Is it to limit free speech, has there been a specific event or events that triggered this?
We are allowed to make fun of other people, but not companies or government officials.
Japan is the best country in the world. Really. Trust us.
Any negative comments about Microsoft or it's products should also be added to the "filters" guys! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/
and with Japan as technologically savvy as it is there would be small underground pulp newspapers, pirate radio off shore on fishing boats & etc...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Japan's twisted culture is epitomized in the phrase: "The conservative government, led by the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP..."
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
but this is just silly...
In January 2007, a small court in Japan, making a judgement on yet another slander case, announced that 2channel's holding company was bankrupt and it would be repossessed. This claim was openly mocked by Hiroyuki on 2channel's splash page, and nothing of the sort happened, although 2channel's Japanese ISP ended its operations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2ch#Free_speech Basically, any website that doesn't want government regulation will just relocate its servers to the U.S. Due to the differing laws, they will not be able to subpoena IP logs or have any way of getting at the people that post to the site. The owner of the site may have some trouble if he continues living in Japan, but there will probably be ex patriots in the U.S. willing to "own" the site to avoid such trouble.
A government not liking their people talking about and attempting to hold crooked politicians to account (whatever country). What a surprise, not!
Take Nobody's Word For It.
See US Liable Laws for a good, civil way to take care of malicious harm. Barriers are high to prevent abuse, it's done after the fact and has nothing to do with the government except for the government providing a neutral judge and documentation of the case. Free speech is so important that prior restraint is reserved only for extreme danger like nuclear weapon design and even then it's debatable. Other restraints like the DMCA are laughable and will be struck down sooner than later.
Setting up a powerful board with a vague mandate is a very different kettle of fish. Analogies to broadcast don't hold internet water. The public interest in pull media demands freedom and neutrality where the public interest in once scarce spectrum demanded accountability. We have all seen how abused that power over broadcast was ... because we now have free internet news for fact checking. That free media has proved more consistent, informative and reliable than broadcast ever was. "Regulation" of the internet will make it look more like broadcast than reliable or truthful. Without care, it will be pure censorship and can also be used to smear and cause harm without redress.
It is hard to believe that this basic issue has escaped the attention of those planning "accountability".
just relocate its servers to the U.S. Due to the differing laws, they will not be able to subpoena IP logs or have any way of getting at the people that post to the site.
Sure, just post it to wikileaks.
The last thing we need is a open source subscriber based intelligence service where importance is determined collectively, and the discourse and content results from collaboration of minds not behold to any special interests but in the interests of our collective benefit. The idea of freeing science and innovation from political constraints must be worrisome for some.
"The future of the Media is a subscriber based infrastructure which is superior in design to potentially biased, advertising supported, centrally controlled information reporting. Or an organization that has parents with special interests to protect or favors to impart. Conventional advertising is flawed and costs the consumer billions in out of pocket expense. Let us elaborate." ~ http://newswire.pro/
We are already seeing the effects of collective power and it is good.
"an infinite player that has lost his finite mind" ~Infinite Play the Movie (it blends with reality)
I approve of this message.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
No, the most predictable thing on Slashdot is posters who don't read the articles and who parrot the most popular opinion.
The article doesn't mention anything resembling terrorism as the reason. What the article discusses in some detail is that the Japanese ruling political party, the LDP, has ruled the country virtually unchallenged for decades. The slightest bit of thought shows that the LDP has achieved almost every single goal of what the most progressive Democrats are advocating in the United States: universal health care, effective mass transit, a constitutional ban against the use of the military except to defend the nation, unparalleled Internet connectivity and infrastructure, all within the framework of a liberal democracy. (And for many environmentalists, Japan has achieved the ideal of negative population growth.) As part of the system that rules Japan, college entrance exams are used as a filter to establish that those who ascend to rule Japan are part of a meritocracy. This and not terrorism is the context of Japanese concerns to save the children. As has been discussed by the Christian Science Monitor, the Japanese are probably far more willing to accept Internet filtering to protect the children out of fear of web sites that discuss topics such as group suicides.
And given that the Japanese system works better than almost any other in the world (only a few Western European nations even have an argument), a response of apathetic indifference by the majority ruled by that system is indeed perfectly rational and defensible. The bloggers who fear being censored represent the malcontents, the rejects, the people who were not quite good enough, the people who have not demonstrated their ability to responsibly maintain what the Japanese system has built to the envy of the rest of the world.
I guess we know what japan's priorities are.
They're using their grammar skills there.
If I were worried about my site being shut down due to offending people with money/power, I sure wouldn't host it in the U.S. Find a country without DMCA takedowns, secret courts, and "terror" lawsuits that come with automatic gag orders, in other words, some place with more freedom than the U.S.
This is true globalization, if japanese news gets hosted in countries such as the US to avoid government oversight while American music/movies/porn gets hosted in countries like Japan to avoid the RIAA/MPAA/etc.
I concur with this post too.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
The US has a legal and philosophical framework that expressly forbids censorship but has ignored it in crucial ways. Broadcast monopolies have been a universal dissaster for free press and democracy but were technically required until about twenty years ago. The unanimous clamoring for "traffic shaping" by ISPs and telcos, if granted will propagate broadcast monopolies onto the internet. It's hard to tell if that or a government panel would be worse but both are unacceptable. Our high minded constitution also forbids phone taps, email reading and web snooping without a warrent. It's debasement is a travesty.
Consider this. Mass media IS regulated. You cannot print WHATEVER you want in Washington Post or NYT. You cannot say WHATEVER you want on radio. You cannot show WHATEVER you want on television. There is FCC. There are rules that papers, tv and radio stations must go by.
Now, if some website is circulating news with similar audience, would not it be fair to traditional media to apply the same rules to non-traditional competitors of the traditional media? Internet has matured, dudes and dudettes, and became a mainstream media.
Learn to live with that and play by the same rules traditional media is playing.
The only problem I see hear is the implementation of those rules. I do not know how they are going to do that.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
The difference between 'liberal' and 'conservative' is much like salt and pepper. The flavor is tremendously different and use to flavor different things... But they are still seasonings and still used on a lot of the same food because they do the same thing - add flavor. Democrats and Republicans are very similar in that they ARE the government. There is an extreme conflict of interest between the government itself and the people's interests. Both want to expand government, but for different reasons.
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
The sum of individual choice is the collective choice.
"an infinite player that has lost his finite mind" ~Infinite Play the Movie (it blends with reality)
They scream bloody murder about how implementing a human rights treaty they signed over a decade ago will stiffle free speech, but it's fine if they do it. Bigotry is okay, but we can't have any "illegal and harmful content."
Sendou Wave Kick!!
Facism much? :-/
What is the definition of a "news site"?
...
For example, if I have a personal site on my home machine, and I put up pictures and a few stories from our recent vacation, does that make my site a news site?
Will I be regulated as a news organization if I let the world know what members of my family (including the cockatiels and the conure) have been doing recently?
There are good historic reasons to worry about such things
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
a common mistake, but something you should know.
so maybe the LDP isn't going to be on its way out for very long.
I see no news in Japan of the mess electronic voting has made in the USA, just vague references to the foolish Americans not being able to get it right, and the Japanese vendors of course aren't making the same mistakes as Diebold.
(Oh? Where was the paper trail, even?)
Just for your information, Hiroyuki still lives in Japan without problems. There have been numerous civil lawsuits brought against him since 1999 and he lost almost all of them. However, since he basically has no assets in Japan, nobody was able to claim a monetary compensation from him. In one of the cases, it was disclosed that Hiroyuki had a bank account in Japan with a balance little over $1000. Hiroyuki must have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, through online advertisements on 2ch, but he just doesn't keep money in Japan.
Personally I am all in support for Hiroyuki. Here in Japan, we cannot have open discussions on many topics due not to government regulations but to social/cultural pressures, so anonymous discussion forums like 2ch.net definitely have a place in Japanese society.
Heh, perhaps this is in response to websites like this:
The Institute of Delicious Whale Research "This site has nothing to do with the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research, except for very scientific research purposes only. It would be too complex to explain our research, so you'll just have to trust us there. That we share a similar interest in these graceful, intelligent, fascinating and yet scrumptious mammals is purely a coincidence."
In other news ...
... "The warning comes after Greenpeace tried unsuccessfully to interfere with the refueling of the factory ship Fishin Sashimi. "Despite warnings from the crew of the Fishin Sashimi to 'go away quickly', despicable international terrorists, Greenpeace, placed one of their inflatable boats between the Fishin Sashimi and the refueling vessel and in the process entangled themselves with international news reporting. This was a very dangerous stunt that put lies at risk and did nothing for our cause" Mr. Minoru said. "Refueling operations are ongoing following which our extremely scientific foodological research will continue" he added."
The "Amateur Whale Reseach Kit" is also available ...
I guess you need to be following the whaling debate the appreciate this one.
The only difference between this and what's going on in America is that Japan are doing it in the open . You think the main news corps in America aren't censored? You've got to be kidding me. I'd bet you'd all be spitting and writhing if Japan announced any law even a tenth of how ridiculous the Patriot Act is, you bunch of hypocrites.
I guess I better add that I've been to the Church Of Scientology chief temple too - on a job interview back in the 1980s. The job interview didn't go anywhere, they really weren't interested in a non-Scino for the job, but the emotions I felt there were similar to those I felt in Shinanomachi and the way they worship Ikeda (like the altar to L. Ron Hubbard in LA) is something I do not care for.
I have been to the headquarters of both of those organizations and I say they are basically the same.