Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday again vented his frustration at Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS), the country's sole public TV station, over what he described as the station's bias and nitpicking against the government.
In a speech delivered at the opening of an annual meeting of the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, the premier also touched on media roles before he expressed his bitterness over Thai PBS's actions which he found to lack neutrality.
For the sake of the public's right to know, Thai PBS should also tell its audience about the good the government is doing, not only the issues the TV station continues to find fault with in order to attack the government, said Gen Prayut.
Without maintaining neutrality in its news coverage and programmes, he said he wondered how Thai PBS could consider itself a public broadcast service.
"Thai PBS should never forget where its funding comes from. I'm not saying the TV station should take my side, but my point is Thai PBS should also present the good the government is doing, too. The other TV channels do," he said.
It was unfair for Thai PBS to avoid presenting to its audience the government's achievements while finding small problems such as holes or cracks on roads and blaming this on the government, he said.
Despite changes in station directors, Thai PBS has remained the same because the staff refuse to change, he said.
"The station should think about how it can contribute to efforts to resolve the country's problems. When I assigned my men to follow up on and resolve the problems, the station didn't mention anything about that. But they blame the government for any problem they can find," the prime minister said.
"I'll bet they will accuse me of meddling with the media next. But why shouldn't I say anything? No, I cannot just let them abuse media freedom," he said.