Gov’t denies online, Twitter censorship over nuclear crisis via Japan today

TOKYO —

The Japanese government on Friday denied that a government project to monitor online news reports and Twitter posts about the Fukushima nuclear crisis was an attempt to censor negative information and views.

Some Western online reports have charged that Japan had passed a law with the intent of “cleansing” the Internet of negative reports and commentary about the accident at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant.

Chikako Ogami, a spokeswoman at the energy agency of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), told AFP: “Our government will never censor information at all. These are erroneous news reports.”

Ogami said the agency had set aside funds in the nation’s disaster reconstruction budget for a project to monitor “inaccurate” online information that may lead to harmful rumors against residents of Fukushima.

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◇ Related Article in Japanese:

エネ庁の原発情報監視 本年度7000万円で契約 via 東京新聞

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