Japan government must not judge the relevance of press questions???
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to respect the Japanese public's right to information by requiring his team to respond to all journalists' questions, without exception.
During a press conference on February 26, 2019, Yoshihide Suga, the Chief Cabinet Secretary to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has publicly refused to answer questions from a Tokyo Shimbun reporter, Isoko Mochizuki, on the grounds that he was "not required to". This incident triggered a wave of protests from journalists' unions, the media and opposition parties, and prompted the launch of a petition that gathered more than 17,000 signatures.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to respect the public's right to information and to ensure that his team answers all questions asked by journalists, without exception.
"Government officials are expected to serve the public and therefore have no right to select the questions asked by media and certainly not to judge their relevance”, insists Cedric Alviani, head of RSF’s East Asia office. “Journalists have an essential role to play in democracies and are entitled to ask any question they deem relevant in the interest of their readers."

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