July 29, 2004

Ministry of Public Management,
Home Affairs,
Posts and Telecommunications



New measures against violation of human rights on the Internet



The MPHPT has been made aware of recent problems with infringements of human rights such as the numerous postings on Internet bulletin boards of the names and photographs of young assailants in murder cases. In order to address these problems, the MPHPT has been examining since April methods for providers and the like to delete smoothly information that infringes on human rights, along with the Civil Liberties Bureau of the Ministry of Justice and telecommunications carrier organizations.

As a result of this examination, the Libel and Privacy Related Guidelines (laying down conduct pointers for providers and the like) which were prepared by the Conference on Examining Guidelines for the Law Concerning the Liability of Internet Service Provider, have been revised (this will be decided following a month-long invitation to comment starting tomorrow). This resulted in deciding to newly lay down procedures for cases of requests by the civil liberties organizations of the Ministry of Justice to providers and the like for the deletion of information that infringes on civil.

The MPHPT expects that these recent measures will lead to an improvement in the problem of infringement of human rights on the Internet, and the promotion of the protection of young people.

For details refer to the Japanese web site
http://www.soumu.go.jp/s-news/2004/040729_3.html

For further information about this press release, please contact:

International Policy Division, International Affairs Department
Telecommunications Bureau
Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs,
Posts and Telecommunications
Tel: (03) 5253-5920 Fax: (03) 5253-5924

Or visit
http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/contact.html to fill in the inquiry form.