A government panel on judicial reform is working on a bill that would create a Japanese version of the jury system. The idea is to allow selected citizens to work together with professional judges in deciding major criminal cases. The worry is that the bill might impose undue restrictions on media contact with these "citizen judges."
The panel says that in order to secure a fair trial it would be necessary to make sure that jurors (citizen judges) do not make any partial judgment based on media reports and to protect them and witnesses from intimidation and other threats. To that end, the argument goes, media coverage should be restricted.
The need to avoid biased judgment goes without saying. The possibility remains, however, that such regulatory measures might lead to undue media restrictions unless they are kept within reasonable bounds. The panel, therefore, will have to make every possible effort to dispel such concerns.