Kisha Club - Kisha Clubs in Other Countries

Kisha Clubs in Other Countries

In South Korea, there are also kisha clubs similar to those in Japan, which are thought to exist as an aftereffect of the period of Japanese rule. There has also been criticism of the negative effects of these clubs in South Korea. There have been incidents which have served to hasten the dismantling of kisha clubs. These include reforms by the media itself, such as the event on June 11, 2001 when 11 local newspapers attending government offices in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, including the "Kyongin Ilbo" and "Jeonmae", disbanded the club and withdrew from the conference room, and events such as that in the same year, where the internet newspaper OhmyNews was expelled from a press conference at Incheon International Airport, and issued a lawsuit appealing against its expulsion.

In 2003, due to a policy by President Roh Moo-hyun, the kisha club at the Presidential residence, the Blue House, has been disbanded, and a conference room open to internet media and foreign media organizations set up, so that anyone who registers can attend.

In America, while there are a few clubs which are relatively similar to Japanese kisha clubs, such as the club in the Department of Defense, unlike Japan these have a salon atmosphere. At the White House, there are secret meetings known as "briefings", to which only specific members of the major mass media companies are invited. However, beside these, there are also press conferences, which any journalist issued with a press pass can attend. On the other hand, in order to obtain a press pass, journalists have to undergo strict security checks from all departments, and the process can take several months. Recently, bloggers reporting news from internet blogs have been issued press passes, which attracted much attention, but it was also found that a reporters from a conservative news website was also running an illegal pornography website, provoking criticism in that the security checks were not good enough to discover the reporter's illegal transactions.

In the United Kingdom, until recently only reporters with press passes for the Houses of Parliament were allowed to attend briefings, but since Tony Blair took power, freelance journalists have been allowed to participate. In addition, before this reform, briefings were treated as being off the record.

In France, any journalist may be issued with a press card, but in order to receive this, journalists must undergo an investigation by the "press card committee" which issues the cards. With this card, a journalist can enter the President's residence (the Élysée Palace and attend press conferences at any Ministry.