Comments from Members of the Open Newspaper Committee (2)

Failure to respond to readers' criticism

By Kunio Yanagida, Writer

As a person who has experience in analyzing various accidents and incidents of misconduct, I feel that this problem involved a typical pitfall. Serious problems occur when safety levels decline in the marginal regions of a system, even when its central part remains stable.

For example, a pollution accident at an agri-chemical factory in India developed into a major catastrophe because the incident was handled poorly by local workers, despite the fact that the company's headquarters in the United States was efficiently organized. An incident that occurs in a marginal region is not necessarily minor, but it can have grave consequences.

The Internet society initially became a marginal part of the world of printed media. The WaiWai problem indicates that even though the presence of the Internet has grown large, the dispatch of information in English on the Mainichi Daily News (MDN) Web site was treated as a marginal activity and was not carefully monitored. In view of its global influence, the appropriateness of information posted on the MDN site should have been checked.

Some printed media outlets today are disseminating sexual information with no restrictions. This era might be called the age of freedom of expression without morality. However, it is not acceptable to carry information simply because it is a column or likely to attract large attention. Moderation and social morality are required in selecting content. Newspapers must show morality with a resolute attitude. Speaking out without restraint or ethics is not a form of freedom of expression worthy of protection.

The biggest problem that should be noted is that the Mainichi Newspapers failed to properly respond to complaints from readers.

Nobody raised questions about the column even when readers pointed out its problems and their complaints were circulated among staff members. This was irresponsible, to say the least. It is necessary to scrutinize the slack attitude and state of mind of MDN staff members, none of whom responded with alertness to the warning signals.

I wonder why the staff writer in question was appointed as chief editor and why stories written by the chief editor were not checked. Perhaps there was a lenient attitude toward the English expressions because they were written by a native English speaker.

It is necessary to create a thorough checking system for the English Web site and other media outlets published by the Mainichi that are on par with the system functioning for the main newspaper.

In recent years, I have become a whistleblower regarding the negative side of the Internet. As this case shows, nobody can easily tell where pitfalls await us in an Internet society.

That online attacks over this WaiWai problem have developed into a type of riot on the Internet shows problems involving the dark side of the Internet society in which people can remain anonymous are becoming alarmingly dangerous, which terrifies me. News organizations should learn from this incident as to how they should relate to the Internet.