A group of freelance video journalists will hold a symposium to examine TV coverage of international news in Tokyo on July 6.

The symposium will consist of two panel discussions, according to the organizing group Asia Press International in Tokyo.

In the first, three panelists are to focus on reporting on China and North Korea, taking up TV reports on the May 8 seizure of five North Koreans by Chinese police at the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, as an example.

The three are Toshimitsu Shigemura, a former Mainichi Shimbun reporter specializing in Korean affairs, Shin Sugok, a human resources development consultant, and Jiro Ishimaru, a freelance journalist with Asia Press who has covered North Korean asylum seekers.

In the second discussion, video journalists from CNN, Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. and other media organizations will talk about their experiences in covering the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, as well as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Kashmir and other global conflicts.

"Japanese TV is likely to report international news from a one-sided point of view, particularly that of the United States," claimed Takeharu Watai, a video journalist at Asia Press and organizer of the symposium.

"We expect the panelists and the audience to propose how to improve international reporting on TV."

Asia Press, established in 1987, is a group of video journalists from Japan and other parts of Asia. While all are free-lancers, their reports are carried by Japanese TV and radio broadcasters, as well as magazines and newspapers, through Asia Press.

The symposium will be held at Tokyo Women's Plaza in Shibuya Ward from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m. The admission fee is 1,000 yen.