Du Monde (10.11.2006) :
Le gouvernement japonais a ordonné vendredi au groupe d'audiovisuel public NHK de
consacrer plus de temps d'antenne au drame des enlèvements de ressortissants
nippons par la Corée du Nord pendant la Guerre froide.
Le gouvernement conservateur avait reçu le feu vert cette semaine du Conseil
de régulation de la radio, un comité d'experts qui conseille le ministre de la
Communication Yoshihide Suga.
Mais cette décision sans précédent risque de s'attirer les foudres de ceux
qui estiment qu'une telle injonction violerait la liberté de la presse.
M. Suga avait annoncé fin octobre son désir d'obliger la NHK, qui consacre
déjà une très large couverture aux enlèvements dans ses émissions destinées au
Japon, à accorder davantage de temps d'antenne à cette question ultrasensible
dans ses programmes radiophoniques destinés à l'étranger.
C'est précisément la violation:
Roger Pulvers :
First, the ruling LDP has become much more bolshie, if you will,
when it comes to directly pressuring the broadcaster. A program on the excellent
NHK news show "Close Up Gendai," aired on March 28, 2005, took up the issue of
school authorities forcing teachers to sing the national anthem at graduation
ceremonies, bringing out the teachers' viewpoints. LDP representatives in the
Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly strongly attacked the program as "biased."
Second, in recent years major scandals have eroded the public's
trust in NHK. Chief producers have been helping themselves to millions of yen by
padding their budgets with fictitious expenses. One of them, was sentenced this
March to five years in jail for embezzlement.
Politicians must demonstrate their support for a truly
independent national broadcaster and desist from hiding their reactionary
agendas behind a screen of "fairness and neutrality." NHK, for its part, must
get its act together and eliminate loose management that allows for corrupt
practices. But on their part, it's surely high time the Japanese people got
their own act together regarding their national broadcaster. It's called "belief
in freedom of expression, even when that expression may be unpopular." And it is
only Act One in the long drama called democracy.
His writings at 
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