Censorship and related problems in Russia, China, and Japan

A famous Russian blogger was arrested for embezzlement. The trial of Mr. Navalny Alexei Anatolievich will be started in April 24th 2013. For defendants this charge looks like a political conspiracy.

Spiegel Online: Blogger on Trial: Putin Adversary Faces Long Prison Term

Mr. Bill Keller, a columnist also deems this trial as a historical event in his article. As he mentioned, Mr. Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks was arrested for rapes.

The New York Times: A Blogger on Trial

I do not know about the exact backbone of this matter. I imagine that political control upon speech is frequently done in Russia.

In China, wiretapping is quite common, as well as censorship of internet. There are many officials to inspect internet in China.
The other day, I visited a symposium, in which Mr. Daisuke Tsuda, a Japanese Media Journalist, said that he had spoken with a Chinese girl who had been engaged in censoring task. According to him, the girl read a lot of articles and comments about Japanese, and erased them every day. However, reading about Japanese, she was getting interested in Japan. And finally, she decided to come to Japan.
So called; “Many go out for wool and come home shorn.”
In Japan, there is a proverb, “Miira-tori ga miira ni naru.” (A mummy-hunter became a mummy!)

Yahoo News: Obstinate wiretapping in China (in Japanese)

Wikipedia: Censorship in China

In Japan, is there any censorship? I do not think so.
Japan is the freest country about speaking. Some anonymous BBS are filled with aggressive speeches. Killing notice, child porn or other criminal contributions are prohibited. But no political comments are restricted.

However, there is another form of censorship in Japan.

There is a rumor that Japanese police want to arrest Mr. Hiroyuki Nishimura, the founder of “2-Channel”, the most famous anonymous BBS in Japan. Indeed 2-Channel is often used for illegal acts. His house was searched by force in 2011. His associated company sued the government for compensation.

Mr. Isamu Kaneko, the Developer of Winny, a P-2-P file sharing software was arrested in 2004. Winny was infamous as a tool to deliver copyrighted files to others illegally, those days. Prosecutor indicted him for the crime of aiding infringement of copyright. Supreme Court finally decided that he was not guilty. But it is true that these events withered Japanese younger programmers, more or less.

Above all, also in Japan penal law is sometimes arbitrarily interpreted. We must be careful about it.

Nowadays, hate speeches against Korean residents in Japan are problematic. Some politicians claim that they are to be restricted. I dislike hate speeches. Minimal regulation may be necessary. However, censorship must be strictly limited.