The House of Councilors Judicial Affairs Committee started deliberations Thursday on a set of contentious bills that advocates say will protect human rights and personal information, but whose foes say will hamstring the news media.
The government submitted the bills to the ordinary Diet session earlier this year; they were delayed until the current extraordinary session due to resistance from opposition parties and news organizations.
The package, which includes a bill aimed at protecting citizens from intrusive news coverage and privacy violations, stipulates that certain news-gathering tactics are unlawful, inappropriate and violate human rights.