French journalist facing prosecution after entering Fukushima exclusion zone

Reporters Without Borders urges the Japanese authorities to be lenient with French freelance journalist Guillaume Bression, who is facing prosecution following his arrest on 3 January within the 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. “We understand the safety problems that could result from allowing people to move about freely in the exclusion zone but we think the current regulations are excessive in the way they restrict the fundamental right to inform and to have access to information – rights that must be respected for every journalist. “We are also concerned that the Japanese judicial authorities will make an example of Bression in an attempt to discourage all journalists, especially foreign journalists, from entering the exclusion zone (to which access is controlled) to do stories linked to the Fukushima disaster. Bression should be allowed to remain in Japan and keep working as freelancer.” Bression, who has been in Japan for more than a year, was arrested within the exclusion zone with another French photographer who has since returned to France. Bression had gone there to make a documentary for the French satellite TV news channel France 24, for which he works as stringer. Accused of forging a permit to enter the exclusion zone, Bression was interrogated for two days, on 4 and 5 January, and was subjected to a search two weeks later. At his trial, he is in theory facing a possible sentence of three months to five years in prison. Journalists trying to cover the aftermath of the March 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster have had to cope with various restrictions that the government began introducing within weeks of the tsunami. Several journalists have contravened the government regulations, especially those aimed at limiting their presence in the exclusion zone. Freelancers and journalists working for foreign media have complained of being barred from covering events. Official press conferences and visits to the exclusion zone are limited to the mainstream Japanese media. Lavish spending on media advertising by TEPCO, the company that built and operates the Fukushima nuclear plant, is being blamed for the media’s inadequate coverage of safety issues both before and since the accident. Japan is ranked 22nd out of 179 countries in the 2011-1212 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.