(SEAPA/IFEX) – Leading experts on media and communications in Thailand are raising concerns over a troubling trend in Thai media ownership that they say is clearly compromising the independence and freedom of the country’s press. Noting that several government ministers with substantial business interests have gained control of some of Thailand’s leading media outlets, the […]
(SEAPA/IFEX) – Leading experts on media and communications in Thailand are raising concerns over a troubling trend in Thai media ownership that they say is clearly compromising the independence and freedom of the country’s press.
Noting that several government ministers with substantial business interests have gained control of some of Thailand’s leading media outlets, the experts warned that press freedom in Thailand is vulnerable and is already being weakened.
Darunee Hiranrak, dean of the Communication Arts Faculty at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the media situation has deteriorated to such a degree that “the government has gone beyond media interference. At issue presently is media domination.”
Aruneeprapa Homsethi, dean of Communication Arts at Sripatum University, said politicians and vested interest groups have managed to coopt Thailand’s media through their interlacing network of ownerships and investments, and added that these powerful interests clearly “want to skew reports in their favor.”
The academics’ comments were made in a forum that was covered and reported by the Bangkok daily “The Nation”. Simply put, Darunee said “attempts by the government to interfere with editorial content have reached an unprecedented level under Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.”
In September 2004 alone, three critiques of the government were pulled from newspaper columns and television programmes, “The Nation” said in a sidebar accompanying the paper’s report on the forum. On 6 September, the paper reported, Theera Thanyapaiboon was removed as anchorman of a political talk show on the army-owned Channel 5 after he interviewed businessman Ekkayuth Anchanbutr. Ekkayuth recently landed in Bangkok’s front pages after he accused members of Thaksin’s administration of manipulating share prices.
On 15 September, “The Nation” said, the army-owned Channel 7 cancelled its “Talk at Point Blank” talk show, which had featured new anchorman Chuwit Kamolvisi, leader of the newly-launched First Thai Nation Party. The massage-parlour tycoon-cum-politician finished third in the August gubernatorial election for Bangkok.
Finally, on 21 September, the local daily “Naew Na” stopped publishing Prasong Soonsiri’s column, “Prasong Says”. The former national security chief is a frequent critic of the government and is believed to have close ties to the opposition Democratic Party.
Echoing the academics’ concern for media ownership, Prasong Lertrattanawisut, secretary-general of the Thai Journalists Association, said several newspapers had been forced to change their editors since Thaksin came to power.
“The pressure was exerted in a subtle way, but everyone knows that many editors have lost their jobs to appease the authorities,” he told “The Nation”.
The prime minister’s relatives have substantial interests in Thailand’s broadcast industry. His business associates, meanwhile, control board positions in leading print organisations like “The Bangkok Post”. Friends of Thaksin, industry insiders believe, were instrumental in forcing a recent revamp in the paper’s editorship a few months ago.
Apart from Thaksin, Darunee noted that many members of cabinet are businessmen who have themselves taken over media companies to influence their news and content.
In its report on the forum, “The Nation” said, “Many reporters who work closely with politicians admitted that political interference such as censorship or business intimidation has affected their work to varying degrees. Several media outlets that didn’t cave in to the government later faced pressure from prominent business groups.”
“The Nation” noted the case of the “Thai Post”, “a newspaper that has faced political interference in the form of advertising cuts and by having the newspaper’s distribution channel severed, with publishing houses and distributors cancelling their contracts.”
Shin Corp – a telecommunications and satellite giant also controlled by Thaksin’s relatives – also filed a libel charge against the “Thai Post”, seeking Bt400 million (approx. US$10 million) in damages after the newspaper ran a story concerning Shin Corp’s rise in profits after Thaksin came to power (see IFEX alerts of 9 and 1 September, 24 August, 1 July and 23 June 2004).
