Dr Sanae Fujita

Dr Sanae Fujita is a Fellow of the Human Rights Centre and School of Law at the University of Essex.

Her PhD research at Essex University was on International Financial Institutions and Human Rights, including human rights analysis of the access to information policies of those institutions.

Since 2013 she has been active in raising international awareness about freedom of expression and information issues in Japan. She has been closely engaged with the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and supported his country mission to Japan in April 2016 to examine the media situation. She has written about the challenges to the right to freedom of expression and the independence of the media in Japan, which were the subject of the Special Rapporteur’s subsequent Report, on the CFOM Blog and elsewhere.

She lectures regularly in Japan on freedom of expression and the role of the media to students, journalists and at public meetings. She has also published a number of articles in Japan to raise the public’s understanding about international human rights standards on freedom of expression and the media.

Her special concerns include the practical implementation of the recommendations to Japan made by the UN Special Rapporteur, including amendment of the Broadcast Act and development of a framework for an independent regulator of the broadcast media.