The press has taken quite a beating over its coverage of the murders at Ikeda Elementary School. Even before the funerals, letters to the editor columns were filled with missives from enraged readers lam basting the media's lack of either common decency or common sense. Most complaints concerned interviews with children as they were leaving the school after the murders. "As a parent, I was speechless," one correspondent wrote to the Asahi Shimbun, "I never imagined the press could be so cruel."
The Asahi Shinbun took the accusations seriously enough to run a series of articles during the week of July 23 explaining in detail how its own reporters covered the incident. The paper made no excuses, seeking instead to give an idea of the issues confronting members of the press in such circumstances.
The most important consideration for a reporter is how to balance the public's need to know with the rights and feelings of the people involved. On the morning of June 8, police-beat reporters were alerted that something had happened at the elementary school but were not given any details. When they arrived on site, they were still not aware that a man had stabbed many students.