In-your-face Western media clashes

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Subject: In-your-face Western media clashes with saving face in Asia

WIRE:July 19, 1:07 a.m. ET
In-your-face Western media clashes with saving face in Asia
AP News Service

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.