It is impossible to adequately report on all the many incidents that occur in various regions around the world. Some incidents are exaggerated by overheated coverage, while others go unreported despite claiming many victims. Each media outlet selects and publishes stories while considering which news should be reported and which incidents will draw attention. But are the criteria for whether to report or not report appropriate? For example, incidents labeled “terrorism” are reported far more prominently in Japan than armed conflicts, even though the former generally cause less damage than the latter. Moreover, even among “terrorist” incidents, some attract attention while others do not. Those that were reported include the two attacks that occurred in France in 2015. The Charlie Hebdo attack that took place right at the beginning of the year remains in many people’s memories even two years later, and when the Paris attacks occurred in November, numerous posts such as “Pray for Paris” appeared on social media, making them highly topical.

Certainly, a large-scale killing in Paris, France—a relatively safe, tourist-filled metropolis—would be expected to draw attention. However, is it acceptable to focus only on the attacks in France? Many other shocking acts of terrorism and incidents also occurred in 2015. Unfortunately, because most of them were hardly reported, they faded away without reaching many people’s ears.

Accordingly, GNV decided to examine the bias in Japanese newspaper coverage by highlighting incidents that occurred around the same time or were similar in scale to those in France. For the Charlie Hebdo attack on January 7, we chose as a comparison the incident in Baga, Nigeria, on January 3; for the Paris attacks on November 13, we compared the attack at Garissa University in Kenya on April 2 of the same year. We counted the number of articles on each incident within the month in which it occurred. The outlets surveyed were three leading Japanese newspapers: Asahi, Mainichi, and Yomiuri.

First, we compare the massacre by Boko Haram in Nigeria with the Charlie Hebdo attack in France. The former occurred on January 3 in Borno State, Nigeria, which served as a base of operations for the extremist group “Boko Haram.” In this incident, Boko Haram not only seized, in the town of Baga in that state, carrying out operations to root out Boko Haram the base of the multinational forces, but also indiscriminately opened fire on nearby residents, killing more than 2,000 people.

By contrast, in the French case the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, known for its cartoons, was targeted for having drawn cartoons that provoked Islamist extremists, and a pair of men with extremist views directly attacked the newspaper. Including related incidents that took place across Paris afterward, 17 people were killed. Did these two incidents that occurred around the same time receive different amounts of coverage?

Despite so many innocent civilians being killed in Nigeria, the three Japanese newspapers did not publish a single article about it. Instead, they continued to give prominent coverage to the Charlie Hebdo incident that occurred a few days later.

Next, we compare the attack that occurred at Kenya’s Garissa University in April 2015 with the incident that took place in Paris in November. In the Kenyan case, on April 2 the al-Qaeda-linked extremist group “Al-Shabaab,” based in neighboring Somalia, suddenly appeared on a peaceful university campus and targeted Christian students. While some victims were held hostage for long hours by attackers who had occupied the dormitories, approximately 150 people were killed.

 Meanwhile, the Paris attacks of November 13 were yet another incident that struck France following the January Charlie Hebdo attack. Assailants believed to be Islamic State fighters opened fire and set off explosions at restaurants, theaters, and other venues in Paris, causing more than 130 deaths. Looking at the numbers, both incidents produced a similar number of victims; but was there a difference in the amount of coverage?

As shown, while the incident in France was reported even more extensively than the January Charlie Hebdo attack, the Kenyan incident received only light coverage.

Why are there major incidents that are widely reported and other major incidents that are not? One can surmise that, for Japanese people, an incident occurring in safe Europe—and in Paris, a popular tourist destination—feels more unprecedented and more personally relatable than a massacre in Africa, which has a strong image as a region plagued by insecurity and frequent terrorism. In fact, Boko Haram has not limited itself to this incident, repeatedly carrying out abductions and attacks.

It is also possible that, because Baga is a rural town in Nigeria and had been occupied by Boko Haram, it was difficult to visit and report from the scene. In addition, since newspaper cartoons were the cause, debates over “freedom of the press” and “respect for other cultures” became active on the opinion pages, making it understandable that Japanese media focused on it in unison. Even so, is it acceptable to leave completely unreported an incident in which so many people were killed by Boko Haram, which, according to 2014 statistics, produced more terrorism victims than ISIS?

To begin with, the stereotype that “Africa = dangerous” is incorrect. Kenya is among the more modernized countries in Africa. It is true that it is not a developed country like France, and that Garissa, unlike Paris, may not be called a modernized city. Nevertheless, unlike Nigeria, Kenya is not a country in the midst of conflict, nor is it a country where large-scale terrorist attacks occur frequently, as in France. The city of Garissa, where the incident occurred, was at the time known as a safe city in its region. In addition, there was no precedent for such a gruesome incident occurring at a university—a place of education and research that draws many young people—and it was a major event that shocked Christians around the world. This was no less distinctive or newsworthy than the Paris attack.

Furthermore, unlike Baga, Nigeria, Garissa was not a town that was difficult to access. In terms of access, another incident in Kenya is also worth considering. In 2013 there was an attack at a shopping mall in the capital, Nairobi, in which 67 people lost their lives, but even this incident was reported in only 31 articles across the three papers combined. Despite being an unprecedented major incident in a large, easily accessible metropolis with no shortage of tourists, the volume of coverage did not even come close to that of Paris. Victims of terrorism in Western countries, even including the September 11 attacks in the United States, account for only 2.5% of the global total since 2000. Yet it is this small percentage that receives the coverage. In any case, comparing these incidents makes it clear that, although it is said, “If it bleeds, it leads.” (An event becomes news only when blood is shed), there are incidents that claim many lives yet do not even become articles.

Determining the importance of numerous events, ranking them, and reporting accordingly is the media’s basic approach. However, judging from this comparison, what is prioritized in deciding those rankings is not the scale of an incident or the number of victims. Nor are the uniqueness of the event or the ease of access to the scene sufficient to take priority. Given that similar incidents occurring not only in France but also in Europe and the United States receive extensive coverage, we cannot help but conclude that, more than these reasons, the higher social and economic status of the victims is a major factor in whether something is reported. The media bear an important role in conveying world affairs. While various incidents are covered by the papers, many major events go completely unreported. Readers consistently place their trust in newspapers and come to believe that the view presented there represents all the major events occurring in the world. If coverage is skewed, even if facts are not distorted, does that not amount to hiding the facts?

Writer Aya Inoue

Graphics Ikumi Kamiya