The curbs on press freedom imposed in the form of announcement No 97 of the National Council for Peace and Order, since eased after they encountered stiff resistance from media organisations, reminds me of the crude means used by former dictators, both civilian and military, in dealing with the media.
For instance, during the year-long civilian dictatorship of prime minister Tanin Kraivixien in 1976-77 the government used a "henchman" to do the dirty job of censoring the press. There was no need to censor the free to air TV stations, because all of them were under the complete control of the government.
This henchman would call the editors of the newspapers and curtly tell them what stories that they must not print, stories he or Tanin felt were not beneficial to the government.
In the case of the Bangkok Post, where I was then working as a political reporter, the calls went directly to our then editor-in-chief, the late Khun Theh Chongkhadikij, and, by design rather than by coincidence, the calls normally came late at night. The news desk was then told by Khun Theh to halt everything and pull the stories out of the page, which was already made up, approved and ready to go into print. Then the news editor would hastily find another story, whatever there was, to fill up the space.
Actually, we could leave the space blank and, perhaps, printed in black, so that our readers might wonder what was happening. But our editor would definitely not approve this approach, which would have drawn the ire of the henchman or the government and put the paper at risk of being shut down.
All newspapers were shut down by the junta led by Admiral S-ngad Chaloryu after the overthrow of the Democrat-led government headed by M.R. Seni Pramoj following the "October 6" bloody riot. The junta later appointed Tanin to head the non-elected government.
To appease the administration and to ensure its smooth operation, one mass circulation newspaper permanently assigned one male reporter to accompany then interior minister Samak Sundaravej to cover his activities on a daily basis. Hence, Samak’s picture doing something or other, or going anywhere at all, appeared in the paper almost every day.
During the government of prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, when democracy was said to be blossoming and no newspapers were closed down or censored, the administration had its own way, both overt and covert, to deal with defiant papers which did not toe the government line.
The government used one "white-haired" handyman to do the dirty job of intimidating the owners or publishers of the newspapers, a tactic it thought would be more effective than directly approaching the editors. Other means included filing libel lawsuits seeking huge sums in compensation from the accused newspapers, or just taking over the papers by buying up their shares in the stock market through nominees. A newspaper which resisted also found income from advertising plummeted disastrously.
By comparison, the NCPO’s press curbs are legally-based, straightforward and unpretentious. Obviously, the NCPO was ill-advised in initially taking an iron-fisted approach to the media. The ban against all criticism of the NCPO’s performance, for instance, would place the junta and its officials beyond all public scrutiny and criticism.
Fortunately, it responded quickly to the call by the four media organisations to loosen up. The NCPO backtracked a bit, softening the restrictions. For instance, criticism is acceptable provided that it is honest and based on accurate information. Instead of directly censoring the media, or closing them down, in case of violations, media organisations are allowed a form of self-regulation - acting among themselves to rein in comment or stories which just might, possibly offend.
There is however a hitch in self-regulation by the media organisations – the media outlets which are not a member of any of the organisations. For instance, the Matichon Group is not a member of the National Press Council or the Thai Journalists Association. Also, the media organisations do not have any legal power to enforce decisions on their members – not to mention non-members.
The NCPO’s easing of media curbs is too little. The restrictions should be lifted and, instead, the focus should shift to the regulator to do its job more effectively.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, for instance, has completely failed to regulate community radio stations for the past two years, allowing them to spread hate messages and to incite public unrest among their listeners.
The NBTC must shape up to its responsibilies, or ship out.