As seen in the Asia Media News Daily
A psychiatrist is under arrest on suspicion of leaking information to a freelance journalist about a teenager institutionalized after setting his home in Nara Prefecture on fire last year. The teen's stepmother and two siblings were killed.
Arrested Sunday, Morimitsu Sakihama, 49, is suspecting of giving statements made by the teen during the investigation as well as a copy of his psychiatric evaluation to journalist Atsuko Kusanagi last October.
Prosecutors allege that Sakihama handed over the confidential information at his home in Kyoto and at a hotel.
Sakihama was asked by the Nara Family Court to assess the teen's psychiatric condition and was granted access to the teen's previous statements.
In May, Kusanagi published a book about the arson-murder in which she claimed to have obtained around 3,000 pages of investigation materials, including statements made by the teen, which she quoted.
Before his arrest by the Nara District Public Prosecutor's Office, Sakihama was quoted as saying, "I never thought it would be published in such form." Following his arrest, he admitted to the allegations, according to investigative sources.
Kusanagi, who has also been questioned by investigators over the case, said in a statement issued by publisher Kodansha Ltd., "I cannot say if the source of information was the psychiatric examiner who has been arrested, but I offer my apologies for causing tremendous inconvenience as a result of investigations concerning my work."
On her source, Kusanagi said earlier she was given access to investigation documents with the permission of a person she did not name, and she photographed some of them.
The boy, who was 16, was arrested two days after his home burned down June 20, 2006, killing his stepmother and his younger brother and sister through carbon monoxide poisoning. The father was not home at the time of the fire.
The Nara Family Court decided last October to send the teen to a juvenile reformatory after he was diagnosed as having a disorder in developing communication and social skills.
The publication of Kusanagi's book in May drew a strong reaction from law enforcement. The next month, then Justice Minister Jinen Nagase called it "a challenge to the order of justice and the Juvenile Law." The Justice Ministry's Tokyo Regional Legal Affairs Bureau cautioned the Tokyo-based publisher and the journalist, saying the book "evidently went beyond what is permissible in the name of freedom of publications."
The teen and his father filed a complaint over the information leak.
Kodansha said it can't ignore the actions taken by Nara prosecutors in the name of investigating the information leak and lodged a stern protest over Sakihama's arrest.
The arrest also triggered various reactions from experts on media issues.
"Holding (the psychiatrist) in custody will probably have a tremendous impact in the sense it will stifle the flow of information by stepping up control and restrictions on the source of reports and information," said Yasuhiko Tajima, a professor of media law at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Journalist Akihiro Otani said he cannot condone the arrest for its potential impact on journalism but criticized Kusanagi and Kodansha.
"Because the image of the investigation document was used on the book cover, it was obvious the book would cause inconvenience to the reporter's source," Otani said, adding that a journalist must deal carefully with materials provided by a source who wants anonymity.
Journalists and authors have been challenged in court over their reports and publications, but these cases have primarily been civil lawsuits. The only notable incident that developed into a criminal case and the arrest of a reporter was a leak of confidential information from the Foreign Ministry in 1972, one expert said.
The Penal Code provides for six months in prison or a fine of ¥100,000 if a doctor, pharmacist, lawyer or other professional leaks secret information they obtained professionally and a complaint by victims of such a leak is filed.
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