"If it’s true, it would be very regrettable," the Japan Times quoted Abe as telling a Lower House panel of the National Diet, the legislature of Japan.
According to the media outlet, Abe stressed freedom and democracy are the party’s main priorities, and freedom of the press is an essential component of those priorities.
On Thursday, members of the Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party offered, during a meeting, to remove media revenues from advertising outlets if the outlets called into question the security laws being debated in the National Diet, the Japan Times said.
According to the media outlet, disputes over press freedom ran high as a guest speaker at the meeting said the Okinawa Prefecture’s mass media did not recognize the importance of security improvements amid the risk of a Chinese invasion.
In 1945-1972, the prefecture was occupied by the United States. The number of the US military bases located in Okinawa was higher than other Japanese prefectures. Tokyo explained the presence of the US bases as a need to reflect the risk of invasion from China.
