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Thaksin's
tirade against the press: Editorial
Source: Bangkok
Post
June 11, 2002
Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra has been at pains for months to deny he is a dictator. ``I
am not a dictator,'' he said bluntly to the foreign magazine Far Eastern
Economic Review after persecuting two of the publication's reporters.
He repeated exactly the same words in an interview last month with the
BBC foreign service, and recycled the phrase again during his recent visit
to Australia.
Now he is repeating himself at home. He is not a dictator, he told the
media and the nation last week in a flurry of statements and interviews.
The media should give him a fair hearing. This is fair enough on its own,
but he will not leave it at that. Despite his time in office and his huge
victory in the censure debate, Mr Thaksin has not mellowed. If anything,
he has become more touchy and crabby, and strikes back at all perceived
criticism.
If he is not trying to intimidate the nation's only entirely free media,
he gives a good impression of it. Mr Thaksin has tamed the TV and radio
news outlets, more or less and with a variety of tactics. He is entirely
concerned and often appears pre-occupied by the criticism from the print
media _ newspapers like this one, and magazines. He continues to turn
up the pressure on the free press, and appears at times worried that he
cannot control news reports and dictate editorial policy across the media
spectrum.
Last week, in his latest outburst, Mr Thaksin sounded even more ominously
like the dictators of old. He may honestly believe he is not a dictator.
But to try to quash honest reporting and fair criticism, he has invoked
the familiar old tactics of the dishonoured, dishonourable dictators themselves.
Reporters should think about the effect of their stories on the reputation
of Thailand before they write them. Newspapers should consider whether
reports and opinions will cripple the prime minister when he appears beside
foreign leaders, to bargain with them.
This disreputable and tired old argument will not wash. The media cannot
give Thailand a bad image _ only people who act badly can do that. Press
criticism is not a black eye on the country or its leaders _ it is a mark
of progress, freedom and democracy. The press cannot cause Mr Thaksin
to lose face. Even at its most critical _ which it is not; Mr Thaksin
has an extremely short memory if he thinks it is _ the Thai press can
only add to Mr Thaksin's stature with its undoubted freedom, open debate
and multifarious views.
It is beneath a Thai leader under the brilliant 1997 constitution to ask
or order the press to toe some mythical line to help the government. A
press that did that would rightly be reviled as a servile mouthpiece for
an intimidating, authoritarian regime. One can hope that Mr Thaksin's
toleration of the military dictatorship in Burma does not extend to its
slavish media, forced at gunpoint to lick the boots of the regime's leaders
and repeat their racist, anti-freedom views.
Mr Thaksin believes the press should give him a fair go. Every leader
and every citizen deserves no less from the media. But the press cannot
withhold news because Mr Thaksin believes it may embarrass his government.
The media cannot prevent or fail to report criticism of government policies.
Mr Thaksin's desire that the press stop critical stories ``for the sake
of the country'' is the identical policy of former dictators.
Mr Thaksin has no claim to be more patriotic than his critics, the men
and women of the media, or any fellow citizen. Whatever their political
stance, no serious Thai doubts Mr Thaksin has the interest of the nation
at heart. It is discouraging that Mr Thaksin doubts the intentions of
his own citizens and their media.
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