The victims' right to privacy was pitted against the public's right to know as the media pressed for the names of the Algerian hostage crisis victims to be disclosed while the government and JGC Corp. remained tight-lipped, but Tokyo finally caved Friday, revealing the identities of the firm's 10 slain employees.
The government, however, was trumped by many mainstream media outlets that had already reported the names of those killed — against the express wishes of the victims' families — after Islamist militants stormed a gas complex in a remote part of Algeria on Jan. 16.
During a news conference Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga explained that the government had decided to release the names because the bodies of the victims were shipped back to Haneda airport in Tokyo earlier in the day. It was not an easy decision to make, he added.
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