政府答弁にみる放送法番組編集準則の解釈の変遷

抄録

To ascertain how editorial freedoms enshrined in the Broadcasting Act are interpreted and how actual broadcasting has developed, it is important to consider how the government has responded to the Diet’s interpretation of the Broadcasting Act, especially regarding how the rules on program editing are interpreted. This paper examines the changes in the government’s responses to the question of program editing rules, which has been an important point of contention for broadcasting freedom. Specifically, a chronological list of changes in the interpretation of the autonomy of broadcasters was compiled based on a comprehensive search of Diet proceedings from the enactment of the 1950 Broadcasting Act until 2020. This list was created by extracting 267 statements from 180 Diet sessions that matched keywords suggesting a connection with the government’s involvement in broadcasting and editorial freedom. The statements were ranked in five levels according to the level of involvement, thereby quantitatively demonstrating the increasing government involvement with each passing year. In this paper, the results are divided into four time periods, and the government’s responses in each period are evaluated. This approach is consistent with previous studies and is thought to facilitate the objective documentation of the changing nature of broadcasting.