We will hold press conferences open to ALL journalists in Japan, as an important alternative space to the closed "press club" press conferences. If you support freedom of the press, this is crucial.
Japan uses a "reporters' club" system, where mass media journalists are stationed together long-tern in the same offices as those they cover. Mass media reporters communally agree upon stories together as well as with the politicians who have come to trust them. Many press conferences are closed to freelance/independent journalists here, and we wish to provide an alternative space, free of coercive pressure. Google "kisha club" or kissha club" to find out more.
If we are able to bring funds we are able to send a message to Japan's mass media that individuals value journalists being able to work independently (freelance), and that the kisha club system is an outdated model that has been harming Japan more than helping it. After the 3/11 earthquake and nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant, there was comprehensive lack of public safety information in the mass media, as corporations did not want to offend politicians and advertisers.
If we can get enough reporters to come to the independent press conferences than the politicians will be forced to appear at them as well. This has the potential to disrupt and threaten the reporters' club system here. Many books have been published showing that club reporters become too friendly with those they cover, and clubs use a system of peer pressure to force everyone to publish/air the same stories. They continue to ignore much of the anti-nuclear protest and significant safety news.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
