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AP-W. Media Ruffles Feathers in Asi



Subject: AP-W. Media Ruffles Feathers in Asia

Monday July 19 1:21 AM ET

W. Media Ruffles Feathers in Asia
By PATRICK McDOWELL Associated Press Writer

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Asked during a recent television interview about
Malaysia's relationship with the foreign press, Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad didn't miss a beat. ``It's not too good,'' he said.

Mahathir, Asia's longest-serving leader, might as well have been summing up
a perennial culture clash for all of the region - the face-saving traditions
of many Asian societies against the in-your-face tactics of Western news
organizations.

The strongman rule exemplified by Mahathir, and the deference long shown by
Asian media to leaders, are increasingly on the way out as democracy spreads
in the region. But even in relatively open societies, brusque Western
directness still ruffles feathers.

Take Thailand, Malaysia's neighbor. Millions of tourists come each year to
revel in the Southeast Asian country's sunny beaches, lush golf courses -
and internationally notorious red-light districts.

But when Newsweek ran a story in early July suggesting Thailand's only
economic advantages over its neighbors were sex and golf, high government
officials were not amused. The writer was summoned to discuss
``misunderstandings.''

``Newsweek should be renamed Newsweak,'' Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan
complained. ``The article lacked fairness and objectivity.''

Newsweek's representatives expressed regret for the hurt feelings but stood
by the story. The tiff appears to have ended there.

Yet, even here in one of Asia's most open countries, there are strict
taboos.

No local or foreign journalist would dare utter a nasty word about
Thailand's revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, if he wanted to stay
working long. The king is viewed as semi-divine by his subjects and
foreigners who think otherwise are expected to keep it to themselves.

``The whole question of the monarchy is very delicate. The issue goes beyond
impingement of freedom of the press,'' said Lin Neumann, a former NBC
correspondent who advises the Southeast Asian Press Alliance, a press
freedom group.

``It's rooted so deeply in Thai culture that you just have to respect that
if you want to live here,'' Neumann said. ``It's part of the deal.''


Less exalted figures get a much harder time. The Thai press is among the
most aggressive in the world. Newspapers turn up fresh corruption scandals
daily and feel free to question the competence - mental capacity included -
of political leaders.

``In the region, Thailand's tolerance of foreign media is very high,'' said
Thepchai Yong, an anchor for Thailand's ITV news station. ``In Malaysia, the
government would have sued Newsweek and taken them to court and driven them
to bankruptcy.''

Indeed, Mahathir has taken a page from Singapore, a press-unfriendly
city-state that frequently resorts to libel suits or limits on the
circulation of troublesome media.

A correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review is being threatened with
jail for an article critical of Malaysia's court system. And a group of
businessmen led by Mahathir's son, Mirzan, is suing the Asian Wall Street
Journal for $58 million for alleged libel.

Societies that have achieved a measure of democracy - the Philippines,
Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, more recently Indonesia and even
Cambodia - throw up fewer roadblocks to coverage, even if sensitivities
remain about revered icons or institutions.

Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi reportedly complained to Time after it
published a photograph of the late Emperor Hirohito in World War II-era
military uniform. Presumably, Obuchi would have preferred a peacetime
picture.

In Indonesia, however, Time has been hit with a $27 billion lawsuit by the
toppled former ruler, Suharto, charging the magazine with libel for a story
that said the Suharto family had stashed billions of dollars abroad.

But the fact that Suharto had to go to court is a good sign for Indonesia,
Neumann argues.

``In the old days, he could have had the magazine banned. He could have
taken away the visas of the reporters. He could have put people in jail,''
Neumann said.

In countries where street protests have been instrumental in bringing down
regimes, the foreign press is frequently seen by the disaffected as their
ally and by the power structure as the enemy.

Thanks to the memory of the negative coverage of dictator Ferdinand Marcos
before his overthrow in 1986, journalists have an easy time in the
Philippines. They can arrive at Manila's airport, wave press credentials
from any country and get a 59-day press visa.

The most authoritarian regimes - China, Myanmar, Vietnam - view the foreign
media at worst as agents of unfriendly governments and at best as pests to
be kept tightly leashed. Myanmar's military regime doesn't even allow
foreign journalists to be based in the country.