Take investigations of killings and violence against journalists away from local police and give them to an independent special prosecutor
In short
- A special prosecutor investigates violence against journalists that seems linked to their reporting work.
- Local police hand a case over to the special prosecutor within a few days of learning about it.
- Killings of journalists have no time limit for prosecution, and the investigation goes after those who gave the orders, not only those who did it.
- Protection covers not only journalists with employers but also individuals who keep publishing news on their own.
If this comes true
A reporter at a local paper who keeps writing about dirty water from a mine gets a threatening call, and that same week the special prosecutor tells them an investigation has begun, so they head out to report their next story.
Perhaps
A woman who has exposed wrongdoing in her town in nightly videos might not be recognized as a journalist, be left out of the special investigation, and have to face the threats alone.
Water so far 💧 0
The proposal in detail
The law covers every case in which killing, assault, kidnapping, threats, or destruction of a home or equipment is aimed at a person doing news work and is suspected of being connected to that work. Protected people are not limited to journalists employed by news organizations. They also include individuals who report on their own and keep publishing about matters of public concern, journalists' family members, and interpreters and drivers who help with reporting. When local police learn of such a case, they report it to the special prosecutor's office within a few days and hand it over. The special prosecutor may carry out the investigation directly or instruct the police to do it, but if the prosecutor decides a case has nothing to do with the person's work and sends it back to the police, the reasons must be given in writing to the person or their family. The office is independent of the government. Its head is chosen by a large majority of the legislature on the recommendation of an association of judges, serves one term with no reappointment, and the office's budget may not fall below the amount set by law. The office has its own investigators and gives priority to cases in which police, officials, or politicians may be involved. There is no time limit for prosecuting the killing of a journalist, and the office's duty is to go after not only those who carried it out but also those who ordered it and those who paid for it. Families are told how the investigation is going at least every six months.
BenefitsAttacking a journalist would mean being pursued, which creates a real check
The main reason violence against journalists never stops is that attackers are not brought to justice. If a special prosecutor, removed from ties to local powerful figures, takes charge of the investigation, there is no time limit, and the investigation goes after those who gave the orders, violence becomes a bad deal. The more likely punishment becomes, the more people who want to silence journalists will hesitate, and journalists can keep working on dangerous subjects. Even in cases involving local police or officials, those who investigate are separated from those who are investigated, so the pattern of protecting one's own breaks down. Because a case cannot be sent back to the police without giving reasons, investigations cannot simply fade away. The duty to keep telling families how things are going also works as a check against cases being forgotten. And by extending protection to people who publish on their own, the law also supports those who expose wrongdoing alone in local areas that have no large news organization. A journalist being able to write safely is not a benefit for journalists alone. When local corruption, environmental pollution, and human rights violations come to light, every resident of the area is protected.
DrawbacksUnfair special protection for journalists alone, and the seed of a new power
If two people are attacked on the same night in the same town, a journalist's case goes to the special prosecutor, while the other person's is left to understaffed local police. This difference clashes with the principle of equality before the law. Human rights activists, residents who speak out about local wrongdoing, and labor union members can also be targeted for their lives in the same way, and it would be hard to give a good answer to the question of why only journalists are special. On top of that, someone has to decide who is protected as a journalist. If protection is extended to people who publish on their own, the line becomes blurry, and the judgment that separates the protected from the unprotected could become a new source of disputes. The state holding the power to decide who is a journalist is itself dangerous for press freedom. Also, an independent special prosecutor is a new body with strong investigative power. If the way its head is chosen is taken over by politics, the body meant to protect journalists could turn into a tool for investigating news organizations that criticize the government. There is also a contradiction: in countries where those in power threaten journalists the most, making this body independent is itself the hardest. If we seriously try to bring those who commit violence against journalists to justice, a new inequality and a new power are created at the same time.
Learn the background
Journalists who expose the wrongdoing of those in power work close to the danger of death in many parts of the world. What is especially serious is that even when journalists are killed or attacked, the culprits are almost never brought to justice. Once people know they will not be punished, violence becomes the cheapest way to silence the next journalist. When one journalist is killed, other journalists in the same area start avoiding dangerous subjects, and the wrongdoing in that area goes on with no one writing about it. One reason investigations go nowhere is that local police are in charge of them. When the journalist was looking into a powerful local figure, a criminal group, or sometimes the police or officials themselves, the people investigating can be tied to the people being investigated. Even when that is not the case, local police are easily pressured by powerful people and are short of staff. Even if a government declares that it protects press freedom, nothing changes unless the people who actually investigate act. Even when condemnation rises in international settings, it has no power to solve a case. To protect press freedom, what is needed is not words but a system in which culprits are truly brought to justice.
Choose them ready to accept their drawbacks too (up to 5)
It helps pay for the server and the AI's planting
This proposal was written in Japanese by AI (claude-opus-5-5, policy version 2026-10-23a) and translated by AI (claude-sonnet-5-5). Nobody has checked the facts. Read the original (日本語) How the AI writes