Posts
Japan is passing legislation like the NDAA which will muzzle anyone who tells the truth about Fukushima.
Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet has approved a bill to protect
information designated as state secrets.
25
October, 2013
Cabinet
ministers endorsed the bill at a meeting on Friday morning.
The
Japanese government says the legislation is necessary for sharing
intelligence with other countries in conjunction with the launch of a
National Security Council to oversee foreign and security policies.
Under
the new legislation, heads of administrative institutions such as
ministers would be allowed to classify information related to
national security as state secrets.
The
data would only be handled by ministers, vice ministers and
parliamentary secretaries and designated public servants.
The
bill imposes a maximum prison sentence of 10 years for public
officials who leak such information and up to 5 years for those who
help to spread leaks.
The
bill also spells out the need to give sufficient consideration to
freedom of the media, which is linked to the public's right to know.
Journalists'
reporting activities would be regarded as legitimate unless they
violate the law or use dubious methods.
The
bill also stipulates that information can be designated as state
secrets for up to 5 years and the term could be extended repeatedly.
But
the Cabinet's approval would be required for a period of more than 30
years.
The
government hopes to pass the bill during the current Diet session
along with another to establish the National Security Council.
Mr.
Abe’s undemocratic secrecy bill - editorial
25
October,2013
The
Abe Cabinet today is submitting to the Diet a bill designed to
protect state information that the government deems vital to national
security. The bill, which will give the heads of administrative
bodies discretionary power to designate an extremely wide range of
information as “special secrets,” will greatly limit the ability
of the general public and mass media to access relevant information,
thus undermining freedom of the press and the people’s right to
know. If the content of the bill is closely scrutinized, it becomes
clear that it will undermine the foundation of Japan’s democracy.
We strongly urge Diet members, whether they belong to the ruling or
the opposition bloc, to oppose the bill and defeat its passage.
Since
the bill will enable the bureaucracy to hide an enormous amount of
government information from the public, it appears to violate the
basic principle of the Constitution that “sovereign power resides
with the people.” Under the bill, the heads of administrative
bodies will have discretionary power to designate information as
special secrets in the areas of defense, diplomacy, prevention of
“special harmful activities” (mainly intelligence activities by
foreign countries) and prevention of terrorism if they think the
information merits special protection. National public servants who
are charged with leaking such secrets could face up to 10 years’
imprisonment.
The
bill includes a clause that says due consideration must be given to
freedom of the press and people’s right to know. But this clause
will do little to uphold these fundamental democratic principles
because it is merely a declaration and lacks any enforcement
mechanism.
Given
the possibility of imprisonment for up to 10 years, it is unlikely
that national public servants will disclose information designated as
special secrets even if they think that the information merits
disclosure to the public for the sake of promoting informed
discussions on the matter.
It
is also extremely worrisome that the bill provides for punishing
reporters who try to investigate “special secrets.” It states
that prison terms of up to five years will be given to people who
conspire to get special secrets or instigate national public servants
to leak such secrets. The government says that as long as journalists
carry out their reporting activities in a “normal manner,” they
will not be punished. But the definition of “normal reporting”
varies depending upon one’s view of the issue at hand, and in
democratic societies journalists have a duty to keep the people fully
informed on their government’s activities. If the government is to
solely determine what constitutes “normal reporting,” its
definition will become a tool for censorship. It’s also unclear
whether reporters who press national servants to discuss special
secrets would be regarded as “instigating” them to talk.
Diet
members should realize that the bill threatens their free speech
rights and undermines their ability to properly carry out their
duties. It provides for up to five years’ imprisonment to Diet
members who leak special secrets. This provision will make it almost
impossible for them to discuss information designated as special
secrets with their aides, experts or even during Diet
interpellations. This provision clearly undermines Article 41 of the
Constitution, which says that “the Diet shall be the highest organ
of state power, and shall be the sole lawmaking organ of the State.”
The
bill allows the defense minister to designate almost all information
related to defense and the Self-Defense Forces as special secrets if
he or she chooses. This would include plans, estimates and studies
related to operations of the SDF and improvement of the nation’s
defense capabilities; types and quantities of weapons and ammunition;
capabilities and production methods of weapons in the development
stage, and designs and capabilities of defense-related facilities.
The
foreign minister will be able to designate as special secrets
information concerning “negotiations” and the scope of
cooperation with foreign governments or international organizations
in the security field. This concept is so wide and vague that the
foreign minister will be able to expand the scope of special secrets
as he or she desires and the government will be able to conduct
secret security negotiations with foreign countries. Information
related to guarding nuclear power plants to prevent terrorist attacks
could also be classified as special secrets.
The
bill includes a provision allowing the heads of administrative bodies
to designate “other matters that concern security” as special
secrets. This provision will enable the government to designate an
almost unlimited amount of information as special secrets.
As
for the procedure to screen national public servants permitted to
handle special secrets, it includes a check into whether they have
relations with “special harmful activities” and whether they have
relations with activities that force political and other principles
and positions on the state and people. These provisions are so wide
that they will lead to investigations into the thoughts of national
public servants who are being scrutinized as well as those of people
close to them, including relatives.
In
addition to the discretionary power given to the heads of
administrative bodies with regard to the designation of special
secrets, another significant flaw of the bill is that it has no
internal mechanism — such as a closed-door committee of independent
experts — to verify whether the designation of information as a
special secret is justifiable from the viewpoint of protecting
people’s right to know.
The
bill calls on the government to listen to the opinions of experts
when writing the general guideline for designating special secrets.
But because these experts will not examine the propriety of the
specific designation, they will be almost useless in protecting the
people’s right to know. Another flaw of the bill is that the heads
of administrative bodies can renew the designation of a special
secret every five years for as long as they want. The bill lacks a
mechanism to automatically end the designation of special secrets
after a period of time has passed. Moreover, people can’t even know
what items have become special secrets.
The
bill, which will greatly increase the government bureaucracy’s
power to control information, poses a tremendous threat to the future
of Japanese democracy. People must take grass-roots action to express
their opposition to the secrecy bill and to make it clearly known to
their Diet representatives that they expect them to vote against it
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.