Tokyo Shimbun has begun directing and supervising reporter Isoko Mochizuki's activities outside the paper, after Asahi Shimbun Publications said on November 1 that it would stop selling and recall a book of her conversations with the thinker Uchida Takeshi, Daily Shincho reported.
The book, "常識なき世界を生き延びるために" (Jōshiki naki sekai o ikinobiru tame ni), was published in September. The paper's move on Mochizuki's outside work has been described internally as a YouTube ban.
A veteran Tokyo Shimbun reporter told Daily Shincho the problem should have been foreseen. "We should have guided her properly from an early stage instead of indulging her," the reporter said, according to the magazine. "Then we would not have caused trouble for other people."
Staff point to past leaders
People inside the paper said previous leaders had been too soft on Mochizuki. "The former president indulged her too much," one was quoted as saying.
Mochizuki's outside work has been characterized within the paper as "left-wing idol activity." The review marks a change for a paper that had left her outside engagements largely unsupervised.
The recall of the book puts the question of who controls a reporter's public reach at the center of the story: the paper that employs her, or the reporter herself.