After The Media Has Gone: Fukushima, Suicide and the Legacy of 3.11
Makiko SEGAWA
For the media, time is of the essence in a news story. The March 11,
2011 disaster attracted thousands of reporters and photographers from
around the world. There was a brief deluge of Japanese and
international media coverage on the first anniversary, this spring. Now
the journalists have packed up and gone and by accident or design
Japan’s government seems to be mobilizing its agenda, aware that it is
under less scrutiny.
The press pack has disappeared like a ghost since this April. The
influx of foreign media has suddenly stopped, as I can attest since I
worked as a translator and aid to many foreign journalists in the year
up to the 3.11 anniversary in 2012. Using the keywords ‘Fukushima’ and
‘nuclear plant’ in Japanese to scour the Nikkei TELECOM 21 search engine
shows 9,981 domestic news items in April 2012, just over half the
17,272 stories the previous month.
As if to take advantage of the precise timing of the media
evacuation, the municipal government of Minami-soma city, Fukushima
Prefecture began implementing a blueprint planned some time earlier. In
the dead of night on Monday April 16th, the city lifted the no-entry
regulations and changed evacuation zone designations that had stood
since March 12, 2011. The decision allowed people to return to the
district of Odaka and some parts of the Haramachi district.
... full story at The Asia-Pacific Journal.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please, be reasonably respectful when making comments. I do not tolerate in particular sexism, racism nor homophobia. The author reserves the right to delete any abusive comment.
Comment moderation before publishing is... ON