A ruling coalition panel said Wednesday it would refrain in principle from trying to ban media forecasts of the outcome of a possible referendum to revise the Constitution, reversing its earlier position, panel members said.
The policy was endorsed during a meeting of the panel, headed by former Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka from the Liberal Democratic Party, to discuss procedures to revise the Constitution, including compiling a bill for the referendum.
The ruling bloc a year ago drafted a bill featuring items aimed at restricting reports forecasting the outcome of a referendum. Media organizations and opposition parties blasted this move.
With the panel's decision, the LDP and its coalition partner, New Komeito, will solicit cooperation from the Democratic Party of Japan so the ruling bloc and DPJ can jointly sponsor and submit the bill to the Diet during its ordinary session convening next month.
The DPJ is opposed in principle to legal restrictions of media reports on the issue.
But the panel will still discuss if the bill should have articles regarding nonbinding media restrictions or a request that media organizations voluntarily refrain from predicting the poll's result before the bill is finalized, they said.
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