PRESS WATCH : Forget ‘Impolite’

No image from President Bush’s visit to Japan will be remembered as much as the frightening moments when he suddenly became ill during a state banquet in Tokyo. Yet, in an ironic postscript, the Japanese government is threatening to punish the network whose quick-thinking television crew captured the dramatic incident on tape.

The only TV camera in the room during the banquet given by Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa belonged to the Japan Broadcasting Corp., or NHK. It had been set up to tape remarks delivered by the two leaders. But as any good TV journalists would have done, crew members rolled their tape as soon as Bush slumped to the floor.

Now Japan’s Kyodo News Service is quoting officials in Miyazawa’s office as saying the government may bar NHK from future broadcasts from the prime minister’s residence because it was “impolite” to televise footage of Bush’s illness.

We understand the far reach of Japanese etiquette, but when the President of the United States suddenly collapses, that is news. And people in this country, at least, have a right to as much information as is available, including tape, film and photos.

What NHK did was right. That’s why every legitimate news medium in the world should rally to support the network.

Leaders in Tokyo must understand that their nation can never take its rightful role as a world leader until everyone is confident that information from Japan is flowing free of government censorship or control. NHK’s initiative is a major test of that.