Naewna Newspaper Co, publisher of <i>Naewna</i> newspaper, has withdrawn from the National Press Council of Thailand, one of the country's four major media associations, citing the NPCT's inability to live up to the intentions declared when it was established in 1997.
The newspaper announced on its website on Wednesday that Parondej Poonsiriwong, managing director of Naewna Newspaper Co, had sent a resignation letter to the NPCT president.
The letter stated that on July 4, 1997, publishers and editors of 25 Thai and English-language newspapers and 10 organisations related to news publication signed a memorandum of intentions, establishing the NPCT to promote freedom, journalistic responsibility and ethics in the news business.
Naewna, as a member of the NPCT for the past 19 years, had strictly followed the code of conduct and the constitution of the NCPT and fully cooperated in all of its activities, the letter said.
However it was evident that the NCPT had not been able to live up to its intentions of wanting newspapers to effectively keep each other under control in terms of ethics and professionalism.
Instead, some NCPT members had shown a lack of journalistic ethics and become the tools of some people who did not wish the country well, leading to the current conflict in society in which people were clearly divided and newspapers were taking sides.
In the letter, Naewna's withdrawal from the NCPT is effective from July 21.
Sources said Naewna was also considering resigning its membership of the Association of Online News Producers.