(The Guardian. By by Cecilia Anesi, Giulio Rubino and Alessia Cerantola) This year-long journalistic investigation was carried out by the reporters of IRPI and is rolled out with an unprecedented collaboration on this kind of topic simultaneously by The Southern China Morning Post in Hong Kong, CBC in Canada, L’Espresso in Italy, the Guardian in the UK, Correct!v in Germany, Newsweek in Poland, the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, Investigace in Czech Republic, TVI in Portugal. A group formed by 14 girls got in touch with IRPI reporters over a year ago. They all alleged having been drugged and possibly sexually assaulted by an Italian policeman who used the host-a-traveller website Couchsurfing.com. The man is currently jailed for having allegedly raped a 16-year-old from Australia who he hosted always through the popular platform. IRPI reconstructed the personal experience of each girl of the 14. It then contacted media from each country the alleged victims are from, providing an original angle that could represent the memories of each. All the media that embarked on this massive work put an immense amount of work, effort and passion into this and IRPI wants to thanks them all, for having believed in the potential of the story and for treating it with the maximum care and sensitivity possible. IRPI received the first hint on the story via its whistleblowing platform Irpileaks - based on Globaleaks software -and it is keen to receive further leaks from women who can recall similar experiences. Testimonies can be sent to their whistleblowing platform Irpileaks. List of published articles here.
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(by Alessia Cerantola for the BBC College of Journalism) As Japan imposes new laws that threaten to restrict the freedom of the press, some Japanese reporters and activists are seeking new ways to conduct investigative journalism. At the end of November the city of Manila hosted Uncovering Asia, the first investigative journalism conference to be held on the continent. Organised by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), it was a three-day event with panels and workshops about investigations, new investigative techniques and tools. Hundreds of journalists came from all over the world to share their experiences, with the focus firmly on Asia. And as I’d noticed at previous similar events or summer schools I’ve attended in Orlando, Kiev or London, the number of Japanese participants was quite low. During a conference in Rio in 2013 there were only three Japanese delegates from a total of 1,350 international attendees. Even the investigative conference in the Philippines didn’t attract Japanese journalists in any numbers, with just 13 out of more than 300 officially registered. Yet initiatives starting up in Japan might be considered particularly relevant at this political moment in time. On 19 December, nine days after the Japanese government passed a controversial law aimed at protecting state secrets and limiting access to certain public information, Japanese activist and academic Masayuki Hatta unveiled the challenging new platform Whistleblowing.jp at Tokyo Waseda University.
Developed with technology from the Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights, it’s a website created to receive leaks of sensitive information, and is able to transfer documents to journalists who use it. Users can access the site through internet privacy service The Onion Router (Tor), a free software enabling users to navigate anonymously on the web. After a training session, Japanese journalists from different outlets can access and use the material, which will not be published independently. "I'm not entirely against the protection of sensitive information, but I also believe the new law has many problems," Hatta told Reuters. The wave of indignation and public demand for more transparency and answers that followed the Fukushima nuclear crisis (above) in 2011 is already flagging. In the aftermath of the incident, anger aimed at the Fukushima Daiichi plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) and the government, for hiding information, turned the Japanese media - usually a ‘lap dog’ - into a ‘pit bull’. This is not uncommon once the media pack scents blood, Tokyo-based US author and investigative reporter Jake Adelstein told me. “Increasingly critical reports are being written in the major newspapers but the weeklies, of course, are the most unrestrained. Surprisingly, of all the major newspapers only two have been vocally critical of Tepco from early on in the news cycle: the far right Sankei Shimbun and slightly left Tokyo Shimbun,” Adelstein says. “One may not like their political views but the papers have done some excellent journalism in their coverage of the Fukushima reactor crisis.” However, the strongest reactions at the time came from a sector considered second tier in Japanese journalism - independent and freelance reporters - who acted as “lone wolves in the herd” and behaved “like the watchdogs they are supposed to be”, according to Adelstein. Today, some initiatives that were sparked back then are still striving to reinforce that independent stance. More than two years ago the journalists Jiro Ishimaru, from Asia Press, and Yoishiro Tateiwa, from Japan's national public broadcaster NHK, started the non-profit iAsiadigital project. They conduct investigative reporting, examining Japan as “a less transparent society”, focusing on money and politics, the environment, China and Korea and issues around journalism. “We’re still at the beginning of the project,” explained Tateiwa. “But when we run stories that the main stream media don’t, such as about data on Tepco’s assets or the political fund of Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto, we get large audiences.” At the moment they have 10 journalists and a couple more contributing. They’re also exploring a collaboration with the academic sector. The country’s mainstream media was shaken up by the Fukushima disaster. Speaking at the Uncovering Asia conference, Tomohisa Yamaguchi, investigations editor of Japan’s leading newspaper Asahi Shimbun, said his paper was about to close its investigative wing when senior managers were inspired by the models of investigative journalism they saw during visits to the New York Times and ProPublica. The Asahi Shimbun investigative reporting section was launched in 2006, partly reduced in 2011, and then reinforced in April 2012. Since then it has experimented with new forms of collaborative journalism, including the production of stories in partnership with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). According to Yasuomi Sawa, deputy editor at Kyodo News, that network has also been focusing on investigative reporting and installed a dedicated newsroom in 2012. “We are pursuing in-depth as well as investigative journalism. At the moment our special section is not large, but we’re concentrating our efforts and bringing in other reporters, from the social or foreign newsdesks, to contribute,” Sawa says. The future of investigative journalism in Japan is still uncertain but interest seems to be increasing. Investigative reporter David Kaplan, who’s worked extensively with the Japanese media and is GIJN’s executive editor, says: “Japanese mainstream journalists face unrelenting pressure to report within narrow confines. There are world-class journalists in Japan, but they are not allowed to practice their craft to the fullest. Fortunately, there are people working to change this, and there are lots of other outlets that can have a dramatic effect there.” The problem for Japan now is finding its own sustainable business models, as happened in other Asian countries such as South Korea or the Philippines, where there are now thriving investigative reporting centres. "There’s lots of potential funding and expertise in Japan to support such a venture," Kaplan believes. "Perhaps a tech entrepreneur - like Amazon's Jeff Bezos or eBay's Pierre Omidyar - will step up and fund a new media group that will bust the confines of Japanese journalism. That would be great to see." (di Alessia Cerantola per Il Fatto Quotidiano) Ogni giorno circa 6mila lavoratori passano il cancello d’ingresso dell’impianto di Fukushima Daiichi, situato nell’omonima prefettura, lungo le coste dell’oceano Pacifico. Sono due, tre volte più numerosi di quelli che lavoravano nella centrale nucleare prima dell’incidente del marzo 2011. Ma solo un centinaio di questi operai si sta occupando delle operazioni di smantellamento del coperchio provvisorio che è stato creato per coprire uno dei reattori, uno dei tre andati fuori uso dopo il terremoto e il successivotsunami. Gli altri sono impegnati a raccogliere l’acqua contaminata pompata nei reattori per evitare il surriscaldamento del materiale. In parte l’acqua viene riciclata e riutilizzata nell’impianto, ma i liquidi che toccano il suolo penetrano nella struttura e si continuano a mescolare e ad aumentare la parte radioattiva. Fino ad oggi sono state raccolte più di 500mila tonnellate di acqua radioattiva, conservate in circa mille cisterne costruite dagli operai... Continua a leggere il post qui. (di Alessia Cerantola per WIRED Italia)
Chi è iscritto può anche impostare le proprie preferenze, compresa quella di far cancellare una serie di dati personali legati al sito. Il meccanismo non è tuttavia completamente automatico e digitale. Per innescarlo è necessario l’elemento, umano. Per l’invio automatico, o quasi, del messaggio dopo il decesso l’utente deve attivare l’opzione all’interno del sito di Yahoo Japan. Si ottiene un numero di registrazione da dare a una persona di estrema fiducia, con il compito e la responsabilità di chiamare il servizio appena saputo del decesso. È in quel momento che Yahoo Japan manda un’email con il messaggio agli indirizzi, fino a un massimo di duecento, decisi in vita. Se non si vuole lasciar traccia di sé, il servizio aiuta a cancellare documenti, foto e video dal portale Yahoo e si interromperanno tutti gli abbonamenti attivi nel sito. E, visto che la rete ci ha abituati a lasciar commenti, in questo caso verrà aperta una bacheca in cui amici e parenti potranno ricordare con le proprie dediche il compianto.
Ma l’offerta non si ferma qui. Per chi fatica a trovare le parole giuste per accomiatarsi, Yahoo Ending dà suggerimenti per la compilazione del messaggio d’addio. E ci sono pacchetti che includono la scelta della cerimonia funebre con tanto di tomba, rinfresco e regali per parenti e amici. Il servizio di Yahoo Japan è utile in particolare per chi crede o sa di aver poco tempo da vivere davanti. Nel caso in cui si voglia invece programmare il momento del trapasso con molto anticipo, bisogna tener conto della tariffa. Il servizio infatti costerà circa 180 yen lordi al mese (meno di 1,5 euro). Invece, se si vuole usufruire di un pacchetto base che comprende il funerale con la cremazione e una veglia per circa 30 persone costa quasi 3500 euro. Dar da mangiare agli ospiti costa un extra circa 22 euro a persona, mentre la celebrazione con un prete circa 1100 euro in più. La preparazione per il momento della morte è solo un’altra fase della vita scandita dal carattere giapponese “katsu”, che indica l’attività. Per ciascun momento c’è una definizione precisa: da konkatsu, che si sua quando si sta cercando di trovare un partner da sposare, a ninkatsu, quando si decide una gravidanza. Shukatsu è il termine usato da chi si sta preparando alla morte e gli affari legati a questo settore, non conoscono crisi, soprattutto in un paese che invecchia rapidamente come il Giappone. Nel 2010, secondo il settimanale Shukan Toyo, il business era di circa 1,5 miliardi di euro, contro i 5.600 euro di media a testa in Italia. Per Yahoo Japan è un ottimo momento per concentrarsi su questo settore. Dall’inizio della diffusione su ampia scala di internet nel 1995 sono passati ormai 20 anni. “Gli utenti di allora iniziano a invecchiare e devono iniziare a pensare anche alla propria morte”, ha spiegato un portavoce di Yahoo in un’intervista al giornale Sankei Shimbun. “Abbiamo iniziato questo servizio per loro”. (by Alessia Cerantola for BBC's magazine) Fifty years ago, the river Tiber in Rome was home to dozens of eel catchers, but now there is just one - Cesare Bergamini is the last professional eel fisherman on the river.
From his battered red dinghy, Cesare Bergamini waves and points at his wrist. It's 07:00 - time to go out and check on his 250 eel nets - and I've kept him waiting. I follow the dirt road down to the river bank, leaving behind the soundtrack of Rome's busy ring road, and cross the wooden passage that links his mooring to dry land. It is cluttered with old pictures, stacks of nets and metal scales - Cesare's life at a glance. Continue reading here...
Italian Cesare Bergamini has been catching eels for four decades. His boathouse on the River Tiber is right under the Rome ringroad. My new radio feature for Outlook, BBC World Service. (from min 37) Dopo essere stati costretti ad abbandonare le proprie abitazioni per l’alto livello di radiazioni dopo l’incidente nucleare del 2011, ora gli ex abitanti dell’area attorno alla centrale di Fukushima Daiichi devono prendere un’altra grave decisione. Quella, cioè, di lasciare i propri terreni perché venga costruita una struttura di stoccaggio di materiale contaminato proveniente dall’impianto nucleare e dall’area circostante. Non è un consenso facile da dare, visto che da più di tre anni i rifugiati delle città di Futaba e Okuma, dove si trova l’impianto, si trovano a vivere in moduli abitativi provvisori in altre zone della stessa regione. Solo pochi hanno deciso di lasciare l’area e di trasferirsi altrove nell’arcipelago, definitivamente. Ad aprile del 2014 nella sola prefettura di Fukushima erano ancora circa 150mila gli sfollati. Alcuni hanno lasciato le proprie case perché comprese nella trentina di chilometri del raggio d’evacuazione dalla centrale. Altri per scelta, perché non si sentivano al sicuro dove vivevano. La nuova richiesta riduce le speranze di poter tornare un giorno nelle proprie case. Continua qui.
ROME, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's 11-day tour of Latin American countries highlights military strategy purposes, Alessia Cerantola, cofounder of Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI), an association of investigative journalists based in Italy, told Xinhua on Friday.
"Abe's search for a reshape of Japan's own security identity is one of the reasons behind this trip," Cerantola, a journalist focusing on Japanese issues, said. "The success in convincing his Cabinet to change the pacifist interpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution by the end of last Diet session in June gave him strength," she pointed out. In her view, "Abe is now able to better fight to redefine the strategic role of Japan in the world." Cerantola noted that despite the unlikeness or extreme difficulty of the mission, the Japanese prime minister was "trying to convince Latin American countries to support Japan for a permanent seat in the UN security Council." "Economic arguments will also be at the heart of the debate and tightly related to diplomacy," she said. "But business meetings coming soon after the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the same region sound like a bad timing, even if intentional, and could make it harder for Abe to obtain the expected results," she elaborated. |
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