It is acknowledged that under the constitutional law, the freedom of information gathering by the press is to serve the right to know of the citizens and, therefore, to be honored to the fullest extent.
Even if we assume the general necessity of control to thwart the organized crime, the first thing to be done should be to clarify the real state of such organized crime as much as possible. Therefore, the press is expected to collect information regarding any and all objects to disclose the real state of the organized crime.
However, under the wiretapping bill, the communication by the press personnel is subjected to monitoring and, therefore, the "secrecy of news source" would not be practically maintained in case of information gathering regarding organized crime over the phone. As such, it is highly probable that this bill would pose a serious risk to the freedom of information gathering in the future.
JCLU announced on March 19, 1998 the Opinion against Bills to Cope with Organized Crime including wiretapping bill, in which we pointed out that "the three bills would seriously destabilize the principles of criminal justice and certainly infringe on constitutional rights of the citizens."
We hereby reiterate our position against the wiretapping bill, which contravenes the constitutional law in respect of the freedom of information gathering and the freedom of report, which are vital to the democratic society.