political experts report that the government of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe is engineering a fundamental shift in the balance of power between his administration and the news media, using tactics to silence criticism that go beyond anything his predecessors tried. These include: more aggressive complaints to the bosses of critical journalists and commentators, causing some reporters and commentators to lose their jobs; more blatant retaliation against outlets that persist in faulting the administration; appointing a new chairman to the national public broadcaster, NHK, who declared that the network will not deviate too far from the government's views; and openly hinting at revoking the broadcasting licenses of overly critical networks under a law that requires that TV news reports not intentionally twist facts. Journalists, commentators and media experts say that news outlets are now censoring their own coverage or removing critical voices to avoid drawing official ire. Under Article 4 of the Broadcasting Law, Japanese television broadcasting requires political fairness, and there are penalties such as license revocation. This law has existed since before the Abe administration. The license revocation issue was an answer to the opposition party's question on the Broadcasting law. However, Japanese media strongly opposed this. UNCHR calls for the removal of Article 4, but many Japanese media strongly oppose the removal of Article 4. Ichiro Furutachi is a journalist who lost his job. He told Sankei Shimbun, “The administration is not putting pressure,” “If our report is lie, our program will be crushed, so there is a self-regulation to make a safe report afraid of it.” Internet freedom Freedom House rated Japan's Internet access as “free” with scores as low as 22. Internet access in Japan is absolutely unrestricted. There are neither government restrictions on Internet access nor reports that the government checks on e-mail or Internet chat rooms without appropriate legal authority in the country. The constitution and law broadly protects free expression, and the government respects this right in practice. The government does not interfere with access to Internet publications. Individuals and groups engage in the pleasant expression of views via the Internet, including e‑mail. The law and constitution prohibit arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, and the government generally respects these prohibitions in practice. Freedom of peaceful assembly and association The Constitution provides for the freedom of assembly and association, and the Government generally respects these rights in practice. Freedom of religion