The Tokyo District Court ruled Tuesday that a Yomiuri Shimbun reporter had no justification to refuse to reveal a news source in connection with a U.S. health food company's lawsuit filed in the United States over the fact that its Japanese subsidiary was fined for tax evasion in 1997.
The ruling contrasts with a decision handed down last October by the Niigata District Court that said an NHK reporter's refusal to reveal a news source in the same case was justifiable.
In reference to the Yomiuri reporter's refusal to answer whether the source was a Japanese government official, the Tokyo court said that if the source was at the National Tax Agency, then the information leak would have been illegal.