By SHUNSUKE ABE/ Staff Writer
October 22, 2019 at 18:45 JST
Defense lawyers for a former male idol pop group member arrested on suspicion of marijuana possession slammed drug agents for giving a video of his house search and arrest to a TV production company.
On Oct. 21, a Tokyo District Court judge sentenced Junnosuke Taguchi, 33, an ex-member of KAT-TUN, and Rena Komine, 39, a former actress, who lives with him, to six months in jail, suspended for two years, for possessing the controlled substance.
The lawyers filed a complaint against two high-ranking drug agents the same day to the Tokyo District Court as breaching confidentiality.
Drug agents arrested the pair during a May 22 raid.
Officers from the health ministry’s Kanto-Shinetsu Regional Bureau of Health and Welfare’s narcotics control department provided the production company with two hours of video of the arrest, which sources said includes the agents handcuffing the defendants.
The health ministry said it will consider imposing penalties on the agents and other people involved in the incident.
The ministry said since similar cases have occurred of video being leaked to the media in the past, it has begun an investigation into the security breaches by officers.
The production company asked the agents for video of the search to include in a TV program. The agents provided the video under the condition that the company had to show them the program before airing it.
The production company wanted to broadcast it on July 30 when the two defendants’ verdicts were scheduled to be handed down.
But in the end, the video was not aired as the agents and the production company failed to agree on the contents of the TV program.
The date of the verdict was also postponed.
On May 29, after the narcotics control department informed it of the video leak, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office asked the Tokyo District Court to change the date of the verdict.
EXPERTS PAN INVESTIGATORS, MEDIA
Some experts blasted investigative authorities for leaking the video, calling it an abuse of power. Others questioned the standards of news broadcasters for pursuing such footage.
“The investigative authorities don't understand the principle of a warrant,” said Shojiro Sakaguchi, a professor of Hitotsubashi University, specializing in the Constitution.
Not even investigators are allowed to enter people’s homes without justified reasons, Sakaguchi said. The principle of a warrant, stipulated by the Constitution, is that permission is required from a court if such measures need to be taken.
“Searches in the course of an investigation involve a limited use of power, meaning only a very slight invasion of privacy is allowed,” Sakaguchi said. “I'd say it was thoughtless, since no reason can be found to justify the drug agency providing the video.”
Hiroaki Mizushima, a professor of journalism at Sophia University and a former reporter at Nippon Television Network Corp., said, “It's true that reality TV-type programs can get high ratings by getting up close to their targets.”
But he added, “This is not the original role played by the news media, which is to make fair judgments, unbiased toward investigative authorities.
“If news media only receive information from investigative authorities, they fall to the level of advertising the power of the authorities."
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