SEAPA Condemns Thaksin Government’s Harassment of Journalists

March 7, 2002

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) is alarmed by the pressure put by the Thai government on the Nation Multimedia Group, a leading media company that runs one of the few independent TV and radio programs in the country.

On March 4, it was reported that the Energy Defense Department, owner of radio frequency 90.5 MHz, ordered Smart Bomb, which holds the concession for the frequency, to cancel the Nation’s political programs on the station.

At the same time, the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand (MCOT), the government body that regulates broadcasting, notified cable television operator UBC to enforce a ban on advertising in an apparent attempt to get Nation TV off the air. Nation TV’s news programs are broadcasted by UBC. This decision followed the suspension of a talk show in which Prasong Soonsiri, a leading government critic and columnist of the Thai-language daily Naew Na, criticized the Thaksin government’s attempts to suppress the foreign media.

As an alliance of press-freedom advocacy groups, SEAPA is concerned by these developments, which set back the progress Thailand has made since the restoration of democracy in 1992. Before these events, Thailand had one of the freest presses in the region and its press was a model that other countries aspired to.

But since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra assumed power last year, his government has put restraints on free expression in Thailand. In February, the government tried to blacklist and deport two reporters of the Far Eastern Economic Review and banned the distribution of copies of The Economist.

We have also learned that the Anti-Money Laundering Office was instructed to investigate for alleged money laundering of leading politicians and journalists, including those from the management of The Nation newspaper, Naew Na and the other Thai-language daily Thai Post that have been critical of the Thaksin government.

We think that these allegations against journalists are preposterous and are intended to harass and silence the press.

We demand that the government put an immediate stop to these various forms of intimidation and harassment against journalists. The Thaksin government should immediately make clear its commitment to media freedom so that the Thai bureaucracy, police, and other state agencies will stop these attempts to restrain one of the most vibrant presses in Southeast Asia.

We also demand that the government allow the restoration of the political programs of Nation radio and to stop undermining the editorial independence of UBC so that Nation TV can operate freely.

Andreas Harsono – Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information
Lukas Luwarso – Alliance of Independent Journalists
Melinda Quintos de Jesus – Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility
Sheila Coronel – Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
Chavarong Limpattamapanee – Thai Journalists Association