'Asahi Shimbun' is resolved not to give in to violence

The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo

People are free to know what they want to know, to express their feelings and to criticize the views of others. We believe that a society in which people have different opinions advances more successfully than one in which people are forced into unanimity for their parochial self-interest.

On May 3, 1987, a man wearing a balaclava forced his way into the office of The Asahi Shimbun Hanshin Bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. He fired a shotgun and fled, saying nothing. Reporter Tomohiro Kojiri was killed and Hyoe Inukai, another Asahi Shimbun reporter, was seriously wounded. The statute of limitations was to expire at midnight Thursday on this traumatic incident with the killer still not identified.

The National Police Agency designated the Nishinomiya case and attacks on the dormitory of The Asahi Shimbun Nagoya Head Office and on the Tokyo Head Office, as Special Case No. 116, involving an extensive manhunt.

The police pursued the case day and night for 15 years, as many reporters continued to pursue any information that might lead to arrest of the killer-to no avail. We are bitterly disappointed.

The identity of Sekihotai, the organization that claimed responsibility, and its motives, remain a mystery. We can only assume that the attacks were directed not only against The Asahi Shimbun, but against the institution of a free press, and the killer somehow hoped the media would bend to his will.

The statement issued by Sekihotai in taking credit for the assassination said, "The Anti-Japan Asahi Shimbun should return to the order of 50 years ago." In other words, it wanted the paper to revert to the prewar institution of a press uncritical of the government and a time when Japanese society in general was sinking into a national disaster. In another statement claiming responsibility for the attack, the Mainichi Shimbun and The Tokyo Shimbun were named, and the author of the message wrote: "Anti- Japanese media should be punished in any ways feasible."

Terrorism is frightening. But we are determined not to yield to it. Since the murder, we have gathered information and sought to publish our reporting just as we have always done. We could do that because so many citizens were angered by the cowardly attacks on us and continued to encourage us.

News media throughout the nation were united in their will to resist violence. The police devoted extra effort to provide security for our offices. Such measures could be taken because of the strength of democracy, nurtured since the end of World War II.

But freedom of the press is not being buffeted by crude violence alone. Endless attempts are made to suppress opposition or minority opinions through obvious and implicit pressure, or through imposed self-censorship at the local level. In that respect, the attacks on The Asahi Shimbun are not some relic of the past.

People are free to know what they want to know, to express their feelings and to criticize the views of others. We believe that a society in which people have different opinions advances more successfully than one in which people are forced into unanimity for their parochial self-interest. We seek to build such a society with diversified opinion.

Without that, there will be no free press-there can be no free citizens when freedom of the press is violated. That is why we believe we must listen with humility to our critics and correct our mistakes on our own.

The statute of limitations on the last attack on The Asahi Shimbun-an attempt to bomb our Shizuoka Bureau-expires in March next year. But our effort to hunt down the perpetrator and get at the truth will continue regardless of the statute of limitations.

We proceed with renewed determination that we will never condone attacks on us, nor will we give in to violence.