Unification Church provokes media: "We will investigate and publicize media organizations with which we used to be involved" and express hostility toward them.
本投稿は以下の記事のDeepL翻訳（一部、管理人修正済み）です。
This post is a DeepL translation (partially revised by the blog administrator) of the following article.
Unification Church provokes media: "We will investigate and publicize media organizations with which we used to be involved" and express hostility toward them.
Sun, Aug 21 15:16
Lawyers News
https://www.bengo4.com/topics/
On August 21, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (the Unification Church) issued a release to the press alerting them to the situation. In response to a series of reports, mainly in wide-ranging shows, newspapers, and weekly magazines, it claims that the reports are "witch-hunt-like bashing acts that ignore the 'freedom of religion' guaranteed in Article 20 of the Japanese Constitution," and constitute significant defamation and serious human rights violations against believers and related persons.
●Suggesting specific programs as "some commercial wide shows”.
The release titled "Alert on Unusual Overheated Reporting" was posted on the website on the afternoon of March 21, and was also sent directly to the Lawyers News editorial department by e-mail from the Public Relations Department.
In the document, there are statements that can be taken as a protest against a particular program, such as, "In the testimonial interviews of a person who claims to be a former believer that are intentionally broadcast by some commercial TV wide shows, there are some contents that hardly seem to have been verified as factual".
The Alert pointed out that these reports have created feelings of discrimination and hate. Also it explains that there have been more than 10,000 slanderous remarks against the Church and its followers, and that threats and graffiti on their facilities have increased.
●Past Involvement Investigations: A Declaration of War on the Media?
The Unification Church also issued a statement on its website on July 17 in response to media reports, but this time it contains what could be seen as a declaration of war against the media.
It is noteworthy that they are prepared to investigate and publicize the media organizations that cooperated with former Prime Minister Abe before the issue surfaced in his case. If it were an "antisocial" organization, the presses would have been careful to avoid any involvement, but they were not, the alert explains.
"On the contrary, it is an indisputable fact that many media organizations have been closely involved through sponsorship, support, donations, volunteer dispatch, etc., as well as through their coverage of events held by the corporation and its friends entities".
"We are currently conducting a detailed investigation into the past involvement of each media company with our organization and our friends entities. As soon as the results of the investigation are finalized, we will make a full public announcement".
Lawyers.com News Editorial Department
