Slashdot Mirror
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."
It sounds like a Putin-style media. Free-press is getting harder to find in the world.
Table-ized A.I.
We are allowed to make fun of other people, but not companies or government officials.
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.
Indeed. I wish people would figure out that what's good for the individual is good for the collective. If not, the collective is fatally flawed and needs to be disregarded or disposed of.
Having said that, I don't really believe in a "collective" in the political sense (although I am without doubt that there is such a thing in the natural and spiritual sense). You can speak of it as though it were a real thing, but it's not. It's more of a construct, an illusion; it's something that politicians find very convenient. I almost never hear the terms "collective" or "greater good" or "for the benefit of the nation" etc used for any purpose other than justifying the subservience of the individual to the state.
Corporations don't have intelligence, or emotions, or souls, or any sort of life. Nor do governments. Such hierarchies are just inanimate objects, tools utilized by people to achieve their goals. The idea that a sentient, sapient human being should submit to an inanimate object to preserve someone's political power is a direct insult against what it means to be human. You wonder why the world is in such turmoil right now? I say it's because a way of life built on such a fatally flawed idea is destined to crumble, sooner or later.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
The definition of 'liberal' has changed drastically since its arguable inception in the early 17th century. The development is fascinating and also, to a great degree, logically sound, but that's another issue entirely.
Suffice it to say that the word 'liberal' is not a clearly defined word. John Locke, for example, did not support democracy. Liberalism in its most original form was essentially a philosophy supporting freedom and equality for the people in all forms. Eventually this morphed into liberal socialism; which supported the state providing for individuals so that they had equality of opportunity as well as freedom of opportunity. Modern liberalism, as a rule, continues along this trend, integrating more elements of socialism into it.
"It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
do you live in the U.S.A? could you imagine the Bush regime making the standards for "verifiable accuracy",
Yes...because all the other administrations have been so much better. Please.
I'll be glad when Bush is out of office. Because then you'll have to blame the lies, cover-ups, and simple fuckups of the government on someone else.
Hell no, I wouldn't want the Bush admin having control over these 'standards'. I wouldn't want any other administration having that power either.
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!!
Your second paragraph is "Dear God, they have a different culture!" Youths can stand out but once you reach adulthood it's a totally different story. You may have lived in Japan, but I don't think you spoke to many Japanese people. When I first got here, I had the same impressions, but after spending most of my time with Japanese people and not with foreigners I came to realize that's totally not the case. People here are really no different than anywhere else in the world except they're nicer to each other (outside of driving, bastards). I'd say people in Japan stick out even MORE so than people in the west. Sure you had Goths in America, but how many 40 year old goths? I've seen 40yo+ lolitas and gyals. Get out of Tokyo and the Salaryman office environment and SEE Japan.