{"id":3930,"date":"2017-06-20T11:19:45","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T02:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2023-10-25T09:44:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T00:44:23","slug":"japan-hrns-oral-statement-on-freedom-of-expression-in-japan-at-the-un-human-rights-council-35th-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/news\/2017\/06\/20\/japan-hrns-oral-statement-on-freedom-of-expression-in-japan-at-the-un-human-rights-council-35th-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan: HRN’s oral statement on Freedom of Expression in Japan at the UN Human Rights Council 35th session."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen-Shot-2017-06-18-at-22.31.55\"<\/a>Last Monday, June 12, Secretary General of Human Rights Now (HRN) Kazuko Ito gave an oral statement at the 35th session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, Switzerland, in a dialog meeting in which UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye presented his report on freedom of expression in Japan.<\/p>\n

The comments welcomed Mr. Kaye\u2019s report, which recommended that the Japanese government review its broadcasting laws to secure the independence of the media. Unfortunately, the Japanese government referred to the report dismissively as the Special Rapporteur\u2019s \u201cpersonal opinion\u201d. HRN thus strongly urged the government respect the voices of special rapporteurs, take the findings of Mr. Kaye\u2019s report seriously, and take concrete measures to implement its recommendations.<\/p>\n

Ms. Ito\u2019s remarks can be viewed online on the UN WebTV website, available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ms. Ito\u2019s is the 27th remark (at 00:57:52). Her statement is also written below.<\/p>\n

HRN also submitted other written statements to the Human Rights Council, available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ID: SR on Freedom of Expression \u2013 15th Meeting, 35th Regular Session Human Rights Council<\/p>\n

\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d\uff1d<\/p>\n

Human Rights Now<\/p>\n

June 12, 2017
\n35th Human Rights Council
\nAgenda Item 3
\nSpeaker: Ms. Kazuko Ito<\/p>\n

Thank you, Mr President.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Now, on behalf of broader civil society in Japan, welcomes the report
\nof UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye on the freedom of expression in Japan.<\/p>\n

We share the serious concern with threats against media independence highlighted
\nin his report. In recent years, the Japanese government has suggested use
\nof the Broadcast Act to revoke broadcast licenses based on the content of reporting,
\nwhich has caused an enormously negative impact.<\/p>\n

Also, there has been serious threats and intimidation against journalist covering
\nthe issue of \u201ccomfort women\u201d as indicated in the report. Indeed, such intimidation
\nhas caused a chilling effect for journalists to cover sensitive issues.
\nWe call on the government to cease any interference against media independence,
\nand publicly reject any form of threat and intimidation against journalists.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the government has dismissed this report claiming that interviews
\nit is based on are unverified and hearsay. However, this ignores the possible harm
\njournalists face to publicly speak about internal matters.<\/p>\n

Mr. President, we are gravely concerned about government ignorance and hostility
\ntoward the voices of UN special rapportuers. The government publicly announced
\nthat works of special rapportuers are merely individual opinions and justified their rejection.<\/p>\n

Recently, the government strongly protested a letter sent by UN Special Rapporteur Cannataci over the Conspiracy Bill which risks interfering with civil society activity.<\/p>\n

We strongly urge the Japanese government to respect the voices of UN special rapportuers and take concrete steps to implement the recommendations made by Mr. Kaye.<\/p>\n

Thank you Mr. President and Mr. Kaye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Monday, June 12, Secretary General of Human Rights Now (HRN) Kazuko Ito gave an oral statement at the 35th session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, Switzerland, in a dialog meeting in which UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye presented his report on freedom of expression in Japan. The comments welcomed Mr. Kaye\u2019s report, which recommended that the Japanese government review its broadcasting laws to secure the independence of the media. Unfortunately, the Japanese government referred to the report dismissively as the Special Rapporteur\u2019s \u201cpersonal opinion\u201d. HRN thus strongly urged the government respect the voices of special rapporteurs, take the findings of Mr. Kaye\u2019s report seriously, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[139,154,135,5],"countries":[248],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-statement","tag-civil-and-political-rights","tag-defenders-democratic-space","tag-un-activity","tag-united-nations","countries-japan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5437,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/5437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}