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Many of the comments and edits in the Whales Vs Other Animals have spiralled off from the original question into the differences in the treatment of certain countries.

While currently much of the news on this topic focuses on Japan, to my reading this appears to be because Japan's current position has changed from "Scientific" Whaling to openly commercial whaling, and that naturally focuses the discussion on Japan. Whaling in Iceland, Norway and various indigenous communities continues much as it has done for decades and without a visible change there is no basis for a fresh news story.

Politically is there any basis for the belief that Japan in particular is singled out for criticism more than other whaling nations or communities?

The last official EU statement that I could find didn't appear to mention any countries at all by name. Older statements that specifically criticise Japan appear to focus on the disguising of commercial whaling as scientific, rather than whaling itself.

Brythan
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  • Is it? – gerrit Jul 09 '19 at 09:23
  • @gerrit my assumption was that it isn't, I think the 2nd paragraph makes that clear. That said, the article you've linked is from 2008. This More Recent article is from 2018, but I initially expected to find something from April this year to coincide with the start of the Whaling season in Norway/Iceland. – Jontia Jul 09 '19 at 09:32
  • I really don't think it's bias. I think Japan is the public face because of its insistence on whaling outside its EEZ in protest of the Australian and New Zealand governments (I believe it took place in what would be Australia's and New Zealand's EEZs, if their territorial claims weren't suspended by the Antarctic Treaty) regardless of whether its scientific whaling program was legitimate. If Japan had gone the route of Iceland and Norway when the moratorium was established, I doubt that they'd gather more attention then them. – zeroone Jul 11 '19 at 00:16

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