club at the Presidential residence, the Blue House, was disbanded. 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. Other details Many of the kisha clubs in Japan hold joint informal events (such as end-of-year parties, summer parties and leaving parties) with local government agencies or company publicity departments. This is not illegal, but it is inappropriate behavior for journalists. It is said that the smaller the kisha club, the more pronounced this tendency is. In 2002, when reports were made about the problem of (the so-called secret Cabinet fund), it was discovered that at end-of-year parties, New Year parties and at the start of holiday tours, the Chief Cabinet Secretary handed to reporters, and this was paid for from the Cabinet Payment Fund. In 2005, it was found by the city council of Tatebayashi City