After a week of conducting interviews, a United Nations expert on freedom of expression concluded Tuesday that Japan's media independence is being jeopardized by government pressure, however inconspicuous it may be.

David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, also said the organizational structure of the media industry in Japan has undermined journalists' ability to counter such pressure.

"The theoretical possibility of government regulation and organization ... combined cause media freedom to suffer; media independence to suffer," Kaye told a news conference Tuesday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.