(RAT/IFEX) – The following is a 3 May 1999 joint statement by RAT and the Journalists’ Association of Thailand (JAT) : Joint Statement RAT and JAT on World Press Freedom Day, 3 May, 1999 To join UNESCO and the world press community celebrating World Press Freedom Day, and on the occasion of Freedom House’s 1999 […]
(RAT/IFEX) – The following is a 3 May 1999 joint statement by RAT and the
Journalists’ Association of Thailand (JAT) :
Joint Statement RAT and JAT on World Press Freedom Day, 3 May, 1999
To join UNESCO and the world press community celebrating World Press Freedom
Day, and on the occasion of Freedom House’s 1999 yearly report on press
freedom announcing that Thailand is now a free country for press freedom,
we, the representatives of the media community in Thailand, would like to
issue our mandate as follows:
1. we urge the Thai Government to immediately push for the abolishment of
the 1941 Press Act, which is in conflict with the new Constitution, without
any substitution by any regulation, due to the several existing laws that
already regulate the press.
2. we urge that the process of drafting the new Radio Frequency Regulating
Act to continue with transparency and include the proposals of different
related groups, to ensure that this new law will promote press freedom among
electronic media.
3. we urge the Thai Government to pay more attention to the implementation
of the new Official Information Act and to allow the press and the public to
get more information from government agencies as a way to promote
transparency government.
4. we support the UNESCO initiative to ask governments around the world to
punish the crimes committed against journalists and other information
professionals.
We, the two professional organizations, hope that the Thai Government will
urgently promote and support press freedom at all levels, and we will set up
a working committee to campaign for the abolishment of the 1941 Press Act
immediately.
Reporters’ Association of Thailand and
Journalists Association of Thailand
