🗞️【3分で読む英語版天声人語】正義に酔うジャーナリズムの落とし穴
📝 Summary
Journalist Takashi Tachibana once described reporters as “muckrakers,” a term originally used in the United States for journalists who expose corruption.
Like farmers who rake manure to prepare fertile soil, investigative reporters uncover unpleasant truths that society would rather ignore.
Yet journalism has its own dangers. When journalists become too convinced of their own sense of justice, they may fall into self-righteousness and lose the ability to recognize their own mistakes.
The column then turns to the “Hino-machi case,” in which Hiromu Sakahara was convicted of murder in 1984 while consistently maintaining his innocence until his death in 2011.
A retrial was finally ordered decades later, raising renewed questions about prosecutors’ failure to disclose evidence and the extraordinary length of time required for retrial decisions.
The author argues that Japan’s retrial system requires fundamental reform and warns that the pursuit of justice must never prevent swift relief for those wrongly accused.
📌 Quote
“Prosecutors, never become scoundrels.”
「検察よ、悪者になるなかれ。」
🔑 Key Words & Expressions
muckraker（腐敗を暴くジャーナリスト）
investigative journalism（調査報道）
self-righteousness（独善）
perspective（客観的視点）
retrial（再審）
wrongful conviction（冤罪）
non-disclosure of evidence（証拠の不開示）
appeal（上訴）
prosecutor（検察官）
judicial reform（司法制度改革）
💬 Emma’s Comment（Japanese）
再審に関するニュースを聞くたびに、いつも考えてしまうことがあります。
まず、多くの場合、無罪が確定する頃には当事者がかなりの高齢になっているということです。
冤罪によって失われた年月、家族との時間、人生のかけがえのない経験は、どんな補償でも取り戻すことはできません。
そして今回の事件では、阪原弘さんはすでに亡くなっています。
長年無実を訴え続けたにもかかわらず、無罪が認められる前に人生を終えなければならなかったことを思うと、やりきれない気持ちになります。
また、再審請求や無罪確定までにあまりにも長い時間がかかることにも疑問を感じます。
有罪判決は比較的早く確定するのに、その逆には何十年もかかることがあるのはなぜなのでしょうか。
そしてもう一つ。
無罪が確定したということは、本来罪を償うべき真犯人がどこかにいるということでもあります。
それは被害者の遺族にとっても、いたたまれない現実ではないでしょうか。
報道に携わる人が持つ力は、人の人生を左右するほど強いものです。
同時に、警察や検察はさらに重い責任を負っています。
人が人を裁く以上、間違いが起こる可能性は常にあります。
だからこそ、知識だけでなく、市民感覚を持った冷静な視点が必要なのだと思います。
そして、もし間違いが起きた時には、
それを“直ちに”認め、正す勇気を忘れてはならないのではないでしょうか。
自戒を込めて。
💬 Emma’s Comment（English version）
Whenever I hear news about retrials, several thoughts come to mind.
First, those who are eventually declared innocent are often already elderly by the time justice finally arrives.
The years lost to wrongful conviction—time with family, ordinary days, and irreplaceable life experiences—can never truly be restored.
In this particular case, Hiromu Sakahara had already passed away before the retrial decision came.
The thought that he spent decades insisting on his innocence only to die before his name was cleared is deeply troubling.
Another issue is the extraordinary length of time it takes for retrial decisions to be reached.
If convictions can be finalized relatively quickly, why does it take decades to overturn them?
There is also another painful reality.
When a wrongful conviction is proven, it means that the real perpetrator may have remained free somewhere all along.
For the victim’s family, that must be an unbearable truth.
Journalists hold the power to influence people’s lives, and police and prosecutors carry an even heavier responsibility.
Because human beings judge other human beings, mistakes are always possible.
That is why those in positions of authority must maintain not only expertise but also the balanced perspective of ordinary citizens.
And when mistakes do occur, perhaps the most important courage is the courage to acknowledge them immediately and make them right.
I say this as a reminder to myself as well.
Source: The Asahi Shimbun, March 7
英字コラムを3分で読める形にまとめるシリーズを毎日更新しています🙂（本日DAY156）
よかったらフォローしてください🍀 コメントも大歓迎です。
