THAILAND: Instability and vulnerability

18 January 2009
Source: Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)
For a more detailed country-by-country report, please click on the following link: YEAREND REPORT 2008

THAILAND: Instability and vulnerability

Thailand ended 2008 with a new government (its fifth in two years), many lingering questions about the country’s stability and, among other uncertainties therefore, the environment for the media and press freedom.

From the deposed government of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in September 2006, to the one-year military regime that followed, and two civilian governments that critics contended were but proxies for Thaksin from 2007 through much of 2008, Thailand’s press had long been under a dark cloud. Constitutional guarantees for free expression and laws strengthening press freedom and access to information were often undercut by hostile posturings from whichever party or entity was in power. Threats and actual cases of defamation hung over government critics’ heads during the time of Thaksin, while lese majeste suits were recklessly abused by all political factions and the military itself, all contributing to a chilling environment for open and free public discourse, particularly where matters of corruption, military coups, or the Thai monarchy were concerned.

The election in December 2008 of a Democratic Party-led government gave rights advocates some room to hope for a change in the atmosphere. New Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is a young, western-educated politician with warm relations with the press. In his time as opposition leader, he had consistently espoused democratic principles, and the virtues of a free press in particular, including open access to the Internet.

But stability is the order of the day in Thailand, and pragmatism a defining character in its fractious politics. No longer an oppositionist, the new prime minister has had to temper democratic affirmations with policy statements that prioritize stability and national reconciliation—and implicitly, cooperation with the military and the establishment—over all else, at least for the short term.

By year’s end, therefore, Abhisit felt compelled to stress that defending the monarchy will be most important to his government. His newly appointed Information and Communication (ICT) Minister, Ranongrak Suwanchawee, said that she herself will make Internet censorship her top priority—she announced that the ICT had in fact already blocked 2,300 websites in Thailand; another 400 sites are awaiting court orders for their restriction—and put her direction specifically in the context of a need to defend the royal institution.

Watching the Internet

A new watchdog organization was thus launched in Thailand towards the end of 2008—the Thai Netizens Network—with the objective of protecting the access to, and free expression on, the Internet. Apart from the broad interpretations of what could constitute lese majeste in the country, the founders of TNN are also troubled by the Computer Crimes Act enacted in 2007, and whose broad provisions had been invoked in the blocking and closure of many websites in 2008.

The sensitivity by which lese majeste and online speech is being handled signals that the larger considerations that impact on press freedom and free expression in Thailand have not gone away, and they remain vulnerable to the political considerations, as well as personalities, of the country’s leaders.

In this environment, self-censorship will remain a given in many media outlets. Blogs and popular aggregators or web-based media such as Prachatai.com often receive “requests” from government and/or military officials to pull down commentary from their sites that are deemed disrespectful to Thailand’s popular and revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Prachatai.com acknowledges that it often complies with such requests. The December 6-12 issue of the British newsmagazine, "The Economist", was “voluntarily” withheld by its distributors because it featured articles questioning the role of the monarchy in the recent political crises. Meanwhile, lese majeste cases continue to hang over the BBC’s correspondent in Bangkok, Jonathan Head, for stories that inquire about the role or influence of the Thai monarchy to Thailand’s recent coups and political crises.

Violence

Outside of lese majeste, the Thai media in 2008 had to contend with violence against journalists and inner struggles to maintain their independence. Continuing uncertainties in the political climate have tempted or pressured media outlets to take sides, and even as journalists have struggled to remain neutral, they have literally been roughed up by all sides in deeply polarizing political events.

In 2008, reporters covering Parliament complained of harassment and threats from irate administration politicians. The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which spearheaded the demonstrations against Thaksin’s forces, overran a government TV station in August. The Thai Journalists Association, a founding member of SEAPA, condemned the act, and the PAD apologized, but the tensions and harassment against the press only escalated from there. PAD enforcers in the airport routinely harassed reporters to pressure them to write favorable stories about the demonstrators. Several journalists and photographers were also physically and verbally abused. PAD guards, armed with firearms, shot a TV van in the airport vicinity. Meanwhile, unidentified suspects on board small boats attacked with guns and grenades the head office of ASTV, the satellite service provider owned by one of the PAD leaders. Pro-Thaksin supporters, on the other hand, laid siege on the Chiang Mai office of Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS). A mob lynched the father of the station manager.

Even away from the political crisis, there were other troubling attacks on members of the media.

The threat of defamation remained in 2008, highlighted by a 1.2-billion-baht suit brought against a columnist by international retail giant Tesco Lotus. The writer apologized and the charges were dropped, but not before reaffirming the chilling powers of Thailand’s defamation laws.

Meanwhile, there was a spate of killings of journalists, signaling the return of a phenomenon that had not been seen in Thailand for years. Athiwat Chaiyanura of "Matichon" and Channel 7 in Nakhon Sri Thammarat province was shot dead in his house in August. The following month, Jareuk Rangcharoen, another "Matichon" reporter for Suphanburi province was shot while he was driving home from work. Chalee Boonsawat, of "Thai Rath" newspaper reporter for Narathiwat province was killed in a bomb explosion in Sungai Kolok town in August, while Phadung Wannalak, reporter of ModernNINE TV was seriously injured.

Reform

As a sector, the Thai media in 2008 lobbied government to prioritize reforms in the broadcasting sector, to ensure the independence of a new broadcasting commission, as well as to further liberalize the airwaves currently monopolized by the state and the military. They also sought to safeguard and strengthen a national experiment on public broadcasting—an experiment that they accused former Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and PM Office’s Minister Jakrapob Penkair of trying to reverse.

Meanwhile, the media continues to hold on to earlier reform laws, passed in 2007, which promise to safeguard media ownership independent of political interests.

Current PM Abhisit has pledged to see to the Thai media’s campaigns for media reform. But how his government’s stability or vulnerability to Thai political forces impact on the overall media environment remains to be seen.