Minoru Tanaka, Japan's independent journalism on trial

Journalist Minoru Tanaka is being sued over a piece on Japan's nuclear industry.

CPJ | Committee to Protect Journalists :: In May of this year, a writer for the weekly magazine Shukan Kinyobi was sued by one of Japan's most powerful nuclear industry figures, for a total of 67,000,000 yen (US$858,000). The thrust of the lawsuit is that the term used to describe the plaintiff is libelous. This is a landmark case because it is the first time that a journalist has been sued over an article, but not the magazine which published it.

Read Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky | Jake Adelstein, CPJ Guest Bloggers, www.cpj.org