Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has voiced concern about censorship in Thailand after the overnight coup. ”It would be deplorable if a bloodless coup led to a return of censorship,” the Paris-based group said after the ouster of Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister. ”The military government must lose no time in guaranteeing the restoration of basic freedoms, especially complete press freedom.”
The military seized control of TV stations during the coup and broadcast footage of the royal family and patriotic songs through the night. A military spokesman later ordered the information ministry to “control and censor all information” hostile to the new government, said RSF. The press freedom group warned that “the confiscation of liberties must not be the response to the previous government’s failures. The Thai news media, which had a rough ride in recent years, must now recover their independence.”
The main Thai and English-language newspapers were published as normal Wednesday, but the broadcasting of international stations such as CNN and BBC was suspended on Thai cable services. ”The military apparently fear that the deposed prime minister… could launch an appeal to his supporters,” said the group.
(Source: AFP)
Andy Sennitt comments: There must be, or at least there should be, some red faces in Bush House, London today. When the BBC World Service made the decision to stop its Thai service earlier this year, World Service Director Nigel Chapman gave the reason that “its dedicated journalists have seen Thailand emerge as an Asian democracy with an extensive choice of radio and television outlets.” I thought then, and I am certain now, that Mr Chapman was extremely naïve and ill-informed to make such comments.
Unfortunately, all Thailand’s radio and television outlets now face the threat of censorship, and the Thai population no longer have the ability to tune to London to hear what’s going on, even though it’s to London that the ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has travelled. Imagine what a scoop it would have been for the BBC’s Thai Service to have the first interview with him since the coup. Other international broadcasters, such as VOA, which are planning to end broadcasts in Thai, should now be having second thoughts.
on Sep 20th, 2006 at 20:13
To that extent, it was always an ill-informed decision because as far as I understand it, all radio and TV stations in Thailand are operated by Government agencies and/or under the supervision of the Government. This means that they are directly owned by the Army or a Government agency such as MCOT, and subcontract programming, which can be changed at will (see story some time ago about “Metropolis 107″). The same does not apply to newspapers, though.
A different argument is that, with a wide choice of radio stations available to the average Thai listener on MW and FM, few people bothered to buy shortwave radios on which to hear the Thai Service.