The Waseda Chronicle is an independent non-profit newsroom dedicated to investigative journalism. It is an official member of the GIJN (Global Investigative Journalism Network) which is comprised of 155 non-profit news organizations from 65 countries. The Waseda Chronicle joined the network in June 2017, becoming its first Japanese member as news organization.

The Waseda Chronicle started out as a project of the Waseda University Journalism Institute on February 1, 2017 with an inaugural issue featuring the series article “Journalism for Sale.”

About a year since its inception it became independent from the university in order to evolve into a new journalism NGO that advocates investigative journalism.

The Waseda Chronicle will remain true to its initial aim to become a news organization that is supported by citizens and that conducts journalistic activities that cannot be carried out by established media circles.

With your support, the Waseda Chronicle will be able to maintain independent, transparent, sustainable, accurate, fair and investigative journalism.

Our legal counsel is attorney Yoichi Kitamura of the Japan Civil Liberties Union.　

Globally, investigative journalism is conducted by non-profit organizations. The Waseda Chronicle plans to actively collaborate with organizations and journalists in Japan and abroad.

Investigative journalism involves independently investigating and publicizing institutional impropriety and corruption by entities holding great power, such as governments and large corporations.

To clarify the Chronicle’s mission, we drew up a definition of “investigative journalism.” The definition of investigative journalism surely differs from journalist to journalist. The key-points of our definition of investigative journalism are following;

1. victim-centered
2. journalists’ subjectivity
3. antagonism toward powers

The first is the existence of victims. We stand on the side of the victims and our goal is to bring them justice. We propose that the purpose of investigative journalism is to end the corruption, fraud, injustice and negligence by powerful forces that create victims.

We also emphasize the importance of journalists’ subjectivity. We describe this as follows: it can be said that the work of investigative journalism rests on the subjectivity of journalists, which arises from journalists’ critical awareness of the issues, questions and hypotheses, and antagonism toward powerful forces. We have determined our mission to be to practice investigative journalism as so defined.

We aim for articles published by the Waseda Chronicle to be accurate, independent, transparent and fair. We will use every available method for gathering information when we determine it to be in the public interest. In educating students, we convey to them journalistic ethics and methodology by having them practice investigative journalism. We sow the seeds for students to contribute to the revitalization of journalism in Japan as independent journalists after graduating.

Reference:

Hanada, Tatsuro, 2017, A Real Crisis, a Real Hope. http://www.hanadataz.jp/w1/00/de.html#20170827’.

Hanada, Tatsuro, 2015, Power and journalism in “Jipang”: From Galapagos to Rhodes. http://www.hanadataz.jp/w1/20150704e/roku01e.html’

Simon, Joel, 2017, Will the Japanese media stand up for press freedom? https://www.cjr.org/opinion/japanese-media-shinzo-abe.php’ ”Columbia Journalism Revue”.

Mie, Ayako, 2017, Uncovering the truth in the era of fake news https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/03/31/national/uncovering-truth-era-fake-news/#.WcBUUK3AOIb ”The Japan Times”.

Fackler, Martin, 2016, Sinking a bold foray into watchdog journalism in Japan http://www.hanadataz.jp/w1/kj/161101/mf.html ”Columbia Journalism Review”.

Statement of our Mission and Principles

1. Mission: To serve the public as investigative journalists

We stand on the foundation of adversarial relationship toward political, economic and social powers. We strive to bring relief to the victims of acts of such powers and to prevent more people from becoming victims, through journalistic activities serving as watchdog. Our role as investigative journalists is to combat the corruption, fraud, injustice and negligence of powerful forces that create victims. We accept this mission as agents of civil society. We seek to improve society better for all people who live in it.

2. Commitment to journalistic ethics

We expose facts that powers conceal, either intentionally or unintentionally. We investigate, explore, research, and ultimately turn facts into news articles in the form of stories and reveal them to the public. Our stories are backed by facts and evidence and reported in an objective manner. We thoroughly protect our sources. We are fully committed to journalistic ethics in accomplishing our mission.

3. Independence and transparency

We are a nonprofit organization. We operate entirely relaying on voluntary financial contributions from civil society’s members. We are completely independent from any government and powerful establishment, and keep transparency about the sources and expenses of our funds and other resources.

4. Professional solidarity

We work across different cultures, customs, languages and borders, banding together in professional solidarity with other individual journalists committed to the same aim: securing independence of our owns and our colleagues from all kinds of powers.

Waseda Chronicle declares the foregoing to be its fundamental principles, pledging to our supporters and readers that it will adhere to and act based upon them.

International Advisory Board

To those ends, we established an international advisory board consisting of the following members:

• Steven Butler / Journalist, Asia Program Coordinator of The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), USA
• Ayako Deguchi / Editor, A member of NGO ”North Kamakura Area Protect Study Society” and “KOTOBUKI suporter’s association”, Japan
• Tatsuro Hanada / Sociologist, Professor emeritus, Waseda University and University of Tokyo, Japan
• Gerd G. Kopper / Sociologist, Professor emeritus, TU Dortmund University, The founding Chairman of European Journalism Centre (EJC), Germany
• Ritsuko Kudo / Journalist, Director at NGO ”Children Future Network”, Japan
• Yasuhiko Oishi / Constitutional Scholar, Professor, Faculty of Law at Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan

Inquiries:

Please use email for all inquiries.
Our email address: contact@wijp.org. Please take care to input the address correctly.

Copyright and responsibility for content:

Copyrights for the material published on this website belong to Waseda Chronicle. Our Editor in Chief is responsible for all facts and opinions set forth on the editorial page of this website.