[Ecommerce] new privacy bill

[Takeshi Muramoto]

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Media curbs absent in new privacy bill
The Asahi Shimbun

http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2003012500211.html


A privacy-protection bill is to be ready for Diet consideration in
mid-February, this time minus the contentious, media-restricting ``basic
principles'' that sank the earlier bill on its maiden voyage.
The previous privacy initiative died in the last Diet session in December
and was rebuilt from the ground up.
The new version drops the troublesome bits and specifically says media
organizations and people who write are not to be bound by the restrictions
the bill spells out.
Government and ruling political parties plan to put the recast legislation
before the Diet during the current session ending in June.
The earlier privacy bill contained ``basic principles'' that would have
required anyone handling personal data to comply. It restricted information
access by purpose and required that information be ``properly'' obtained and
its intended use be clear to all.
The new version of the bill scales back the principles and calls them
``basic ideas'' for compliance, specifying that personal information
``should be treated with care, given the principle of respect for the
individual,'' and be ``handled properly.''
The new bill specifically exempts journalists who work for media
organizations and unaffiliated free-lancers, as well as media organizations
themselves and academic, religious and political institutions, from
ministerial jurisdiction.
Companion legislation promoted by the government to safeguard personal data
will provide for punishment of government officials and civil service
employees-past and present-who steal or leak such information for ``improper
purposes'' or for their personal gain.
The coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and Hoshu Shinto
(New Conservative Party) plans to start herding important legislation into
the hopper after the fiscal 2003 budget clears the Lower House. The
coalition intends to form special committees to deal with key bills,
including the privacy-protection bill, for exclusive deliberation by both
Diet chambers.
The opposition, however, objects even to the idea of creating special
committees to deal with key legislation.
Yukio Edano, chairman of the Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) Policy
Research Committee, branded the changes that exclude media organizations
from terms of the privacy bill as ``nonsense.''
``Public authorities should never be allowed to decide what is a media
organization and what isn't,'' Edano said.
But the coalition is seen to be prepared to force the bill to passage if
opposition parties do not agree to meet to discuss it.(IHT/Asahi: January
25,2003)

Takeshi Muramoto