Photo/Illutration Clippings of recent election coverage by The Asahi Shimbun (The Asahi Shimbun)

The Asahi Shimbun has established new election coverage guidelines and will set up a section for fact-checking, including information posted on social media, during campaigns.

The basic guidelines incorporate readers’ views that they have not received information needed to make informed decisions on election day.

We have revised the guidelines to more clearly state our intention to aggressively provide information that voters need.

The need for a new section to fact-check social media posts emerged after fake or mistaken information spread online during recent elections. The section will seek to swiftly determine the veracity of what is said by political parties and politicians.

The basic guidelines for election reporting and coverage are based on a 2024 internal document on the matter.

The new guidelines also take into account the growing influence of social media on election results.

In our past election coverage, we emphasized fairness during the campaign period and avoided bias toward a specific party or candidate.

But unexpected events occurred during the 2024 Lower House by-election in the Tokyo No. 15 district as well as the Tokyo and Hyogo gubernatorial elections.

Fake or suspect information spread over social media. Some parties and candidates also deliberately interfered with the campaigns of other candidates.

In particular, many readers criticized our coverage of the Hyogo gubernatorial campaign for not providing the needed information.

In-house discussions were held on proper election coverage that match the changing times and reflect the voices of our readers.

We reconfirmed that during campaign periods reporting should, in principle, be free and open.

And while consideration will be given to maintain a certain degree of fairness, an understanding was shared internally about aggressively reporting and publishing articles if parties and candidates are transmitting false information or acting in ways that violate common sense.

We will also conduct fact checks to determine the veracity of comments by politicians and social media posts in which the truth may be difficult to immediately confirm.

Such checks will also be conducted for photos and videos posted to social media.

In addition, we confirmed our intent to protect reporters, including through legal action, should they become the target of defamation during the course of their work.

The mission of election coverage is to provide accurate information that will be useful for readers, facts as determined by our reporting, as well as diverse and deep analyses.

Related News