Up to 200 community radio stations have been founding broadcasting anti-government content in violation of the orders of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) secretary general Takorn Tantasith said on Tuesday.
Random inspections of the programme content of community radio stations nationwide showed that the main violation was broadcasting anti-government content. Only a few stations had anti-monarchy content, the chief broadcasting regulator said.
Broadcasting of such content was a violation of the memorandum of understanding which the stations had with the NBTC. The regulator has approved the operations of a total of 4,300 community radio stations that signed the MoUs.
These stations must have transmitters with maximum power of no more than 500 watts, a maximum 60-metre tall transmission antenna and a broadcasting radius of no more than 20 kilometres.
The NBTC will take legal action against the 100-200 radio stations found to be in breach of the agreement by suspending their broadcasting licence for three to 30 days, or in the worst case withdrawing their permit, Mr Takorn said.
The inspections were carried out by NBTC officials and police.