(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 11 February 2006, a television crew from the army-run Channel 7 narrowly escaped an attack by a group of demonstrators angered by the allegedly biased reporting of state TV stations covering protest actions against Prime Minister Thaksin, a complaint filed with the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association (TBJA) said. According to the complaint, […]
(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 11 February 2006, a television crew from the army-run Channel 7 narrowly escaped an attack by a group of demonstrators angered by the allegedly biased reporting of state TV stations covering protest actions against Prime Minister Thaksin, a complaint filed with the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association (TBJA) said.
According to the complaint, lodged by the Association of Thai Television Camera Crew (ATTCC) on 16 February, while reporting live from a rally at the Royal Plaza in the Thai capital of Bangkok, Channel 7 news anchor Sompoch Dhoraksa was encircled by protesters and would have been attacked had the police not intervened. In the melee, cameraman Tharaj Chanya was pushed to the ground and his video camera was broken as a result.
According to ATTCC, the crew of three other state and two private stations were also either verbally abused or threatened with violent action by the demonstrators during the rally.
In response to the complaint, TBJA issued a statement on 17 February deploring such harassment as inappropriate. TBJA asked the demonstrators to respect the right of the media to report, saying that any complaints about biased reporting should be addressed directly to the management of these news organisations.
TBJA president Somchai Sawaengkarn met separately with the rally organizers to discuss safety measures for reporters in future coverage of the demonstrations. The next anti-government rally is scheduled for 26 February.
TBJA also urged the organizers to refrain from making any statements that might instigate hatred against reporters in the field. Prior to this incident, TBJA issued a statement to all state or army-owned television channels and radio stations urging them to provide fair coverage of the on-going anti-government protest actions so that the public will be fully informed of significant political developments.
Although print media have given adequate coverage to the growing anti-Thaksin movement, radio and TV stations have given little air time to the demonstrations, which began in late November 2005 after media mogul and Thaksin critic Sondhi Limthongkul took his government-cancelled political talk show on a roadshow.
The weekly rallies have since expanded to include academics, workers, students and other members of civil society who are demanding the resignation of Thaksin for failing to stem corruption, abuse of power and conflict of interest involving his family, a big telecom corporation and the government.
According to a TBJA media monitoring report released on 17 February, state and army TV channels, as well as the private station iTV, dedicated one-third of their news program airtime to reporting on the rally on 11 February, an increase over the coverage granted to the previous, 4 February anti-government rally.
