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BKK POST: Thai press still needs
- Subject: BKK POST: Thai press still needs
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 06:45:00
May 4, 1998
May 4, 1998
Editorial
Thai press still
needs
improvement
Thailand can afford to bask for a moment in praise for its
inexorable and apparently unstoppable progress on press
freedom. Indeed, 1997 was a landmark year in the long and
difficult challenge of establishing a trustworthy press that is truly
free. The Committee to Protect Journalists, in its annual survey of
the world, said the new constitution contains the most sweeping
free-press provisions in Asia. Our new supreme law is also the
probable reason why Freedom House of America credited
Thailand with new gains towards press freedom.
Compared with much of the world, we have a lot to be thankful
for in all our political freedoms. That includes freedom of the
press, where Thailand ranks among the top quarter of all
countries. To mark World Press Freedom Day yesterday,
several respected organisations surveyed the world. Thailand's
press surpassed most of the world in rankings of both legal and
actual freedom.
The Press Freedom Day praise is welcome, particularly since it
recognises the huge national effort that went into writing and
passing our new constitution. The framers of the charter deserve
special commendation for their attention to press freedom. No
country with a shackled or government-controlled media can be
truly free. It is apocryphal to say that "Thai" means "free", but it is
true that the citizens of our country have consistently fought for
their freedoms.
Not all of the rest of the world is so fortunate. The report by the
Committee to Protect Journalists names the world's top 10
enemies of the press. In our neighbourhood, we meet Suharto of
Indonesia, Jiang Zemin of China and Than Shwe, the nominal
dictator of Burma. The CPJ calls Burma a nightmare for freedom
of expression, says China controls all media, and notes that the
Indonesian military arrests, harasses and threatens journalists -
and if that doesn't work, it drives them into exile.
The Freedom House report notes how many nations which
repress the press - Vietnam, Malaysia, Burma - continue to
suffer the fallout from the 1997 economic crash. Like many, we
are sceptical that press freedom and a thriving economy are
directly linked. But we do think Thailand's decision to provide
honest, transparent and timely economic information and its
decision to establish a free press spring from the same well.
Newspaper censorship has ended in Thailand, and authorities
can no longer close publications on a whim. Legal disputes
including criminal charges against newspapers and other media
will be fought in the court, not in the offices of a bureaucrat or
police chief. Much remains to be done, however, before we can
take a bow as the world's most free press. The new Press
Council is still forming, but it should provide an effective
ombudsman to prevent media excesses.
Then there is the extremely serious matter of violence and
intimidation of newsmen. Last Jan 10, someone shot Matichon
reporter Sayomchai Vijitwittayapong to death in his native
Phichit province. Mr Sayomchai told colleagues he had turned
down a bribe of 150,000 baht to stop writing about corruption in
the province's building trade. That could have been the fatal
trigger, so to speak.
If our authorities have largely stopped intimidating or threatening
reporters and editors, local mafia and godfathers have not. This
is not simply a problem for the Thai press, of course. Old-style
gangster politics still prevail in many places. They are the chief
reason for political corruption. We can take some solace that the
godfathers and mafia leaders are slowly losing their influence, but
much remains to be done to make members of the media feel
safe about honest reporting.
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Last Modified: Mon, May 4, 1998