nuclear-news

Independent news website advises Japan to embrace citizen-based news

Jan 23, 2014 Ida Torres National

http://japandailypress.com/independent-news-website-advises-japan-to-embrace-citizen-based-news-2342945/

The head of an independent news website who went on a reporting tour of Japan has advised the local media to embrace citizen-based reporting as a way of helping improve society. Amy Goodman is the executive director of Democracy Now!, a Web-based site that advocates citizen journalism and airs in over 1,000 countries worldwide.

Goodman went around the country and interviewed evacuees from the Fukushima region, who were forced to leave their homes after the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011. She also met with residents of Okinawa who have been protesting the huge U.S. military presence, the largest in the region, in their prefecture. She said there is a different kind of power that comes from reading about the personal experiences of those who are in the thick of the situation.

She shared her thoughts and experiences with the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday. She talked to them about the philosophy of Democracy Now! which is to bring a different perspective on news events that are independent from news outlets that may be profit or politics driven. They focus on such topics like climate change, national security, secrecy, racial discrimination and other similar issues. They believe that because the “common people” are given a voice through citizen journalism, there is a greater possibility to get actual action and results.

She used the example of how the public outcry over safety issues in nuclear plants has kept all of the plants closed and reactors offline, despite the current administration’s plans to still push nuclear power. “Imagine the possibilities for the rest of the world if more voices were heard,” she said.

[ via Wall Street Journal ]

January 23, 2014 - Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized