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A Matter of Concern to Everyone

Source: Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation
February 24, 2004

The removal last week of the editor of the Bangkok Post is an infringement of the people’s right to know the truth

Editorial independence at the Bangkok Post is now in a very fragile state. This is underscored by the fact that its February 21 edition made no mention of a signed protest to the paper’s board of directors by 77 of its journalists the previous day. The protest was against the decision by the board to remove Veera Prateepchaikul from the editor’s position, something the journalists see as capitulation to pressure from the Thaksin administration.

The paper had been critical, albeit on and off, of the current administration. Sources said its front-page headline on December 5, 2003, which said that His Majesty the King warned about arrogance, led to Veera being given three months to “clean house”. Apparently it was not clean enough and the axe fell last Friday.

The paper’s failure to acknowledge the petition of its journalists could perhaps be interpreted as the new editor’s intention to sweep under the carpet the brave attempt by Post journalists to get a guarantee of editorial independence from both the government and the paper’s owners.

But it was an important act, especially considering that the 77 signatures were collected in less than three hours and that part of the protest stated: “When we question the importance of and commitment to editorial independence, we challenge the very bedrock of our existence.”

That said, no one should mistake Veera as a heroic or courageous editor – he is both a victim and oppressor. Some Post reporters confirmed to this writer that over the past few months, Veera himself had time and again presided over what might best be described as self-censorship by toning down and editing out anything deemed overtly critical of the Thaksin administration.

Thus the Thai Journalists

Association’s (TJA) claim that Veera is a journalist of “high ethics and integrity” is questionable, but not surprising given that he is serving his second term as its president.

The public should be aware that Veera was an accessory to the self-censorship at the Post. Though we may not know whether he did his task willingly or not, the truth remains that some form of censorship of anything critical of Thaksin has been going on without public knowledge for some time, and that his removal was due to the fact he hadn’t censored thoroughly enough. If Veera ought to be removed it should be because he accepted the paper’s owners’ order to be part of this self-censorship, and not the other way around.

A number of Post journalists still think this issue is an internal affair and some its reporters who “reported” the struggle within the paper are being reprimanded by their senior colleagues.

This is most unfortunate, for it shows a lack of a sense of higher responsibility to the public. Courageous Post reporters should remember that the matter has gone too far and that the public deserves to know about it in all its complexity. Perhaps it was an internal affair when some months ago partial self-censorship was put in place under Veera’s watch and Post reporters reluctantly lived with it. However, with Veera’s removal, it can no longer be treated as an internal affair.

What is more, taken in the larger context of political interference in other media organisations, such as the removal of columnists critical of the Thaksin administration at the Siamrath Weekly News magazine a few weeks ago or the purchase of a substantial stake in Nation Multimedia Group [which owns this newspaper] by those closely related to a senior Thai Rak Thai politician, as well as the decision by one big media group to become a self-professed mouthpiece of the government in general and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in particular, one can see ominous signs that freedom of the press in Thailand is in jeopardy.

The journalists who signed the protest demanded a balance between corporate interests and editorial integrity. This is the greatest challenge for the Thai media, and, indeed, media outlets everywhere which have gone corporate and are under pressure from shareholders who want returns on investment.

In Thailand, this situation has made the media, The Nation included, susceptible to political pressure through the manipulation of business deals.

But things can be done in a more blatant manner, as witnessed by the Bangkok Post staff last week.

Any self-respecting journalist or member of the public cannot merely hope that media owners will stay benign. That’s why they must take the media’s responsibility to the public seriously.

Journalists at the Bangkok Post deserve all the support they can get from the public for this is no longer an internal affair but a blatant violation of press freedom and an infringement on the right of the Thai public to be told the truth.