It took years for Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda to become the face and voice of reliable news. And it took a few minutes for a Criminal Court judge to tell the country that maybe all that public trust was a bit misplaced.
Sorrayuth, said the judge, was an embezzler who bribed a government official in order to put 138 million-plus baht in his pocket in a year-long serial theft that ended 10 years ago. The judge sentenced Sorrayuth and his assistant Montha Theeradet to 20 years in prison and the long-missing Mcot bribe-taker Pichapa Iamsa-ard to 30 years — all sentences then cut by a third.
No one will be going to jail for a while, as appeals get under way with Sorrayuth and Montha on bail.
The fallout from the case is massive. Because Sorrayuth is a prominent, national figure his case is raising unique questions, most of which have massively uncomfortable answers — not just for him and his equally profit-minded Channel 3 partners; not just for Big Business and Big Media, but for the country.
In the interest of meeting the editor’s sufficiency policies on words and space, let’s try to boil down all the questions to one. How about: Will you support and condone Sorrayuth by watching his show?
Remember, Sorrayuth’s companies produce and broadcast all Channel 3 news, morning, late afternoon and night. Sorrayuth has been the on-camera star, but all information coming out of the station is by the Sorrayuth Network, owned by Sorrayuth Inc, controlled by Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda.
According to the BEC World accounting sheets from the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Sorrayuth Inc provides 4.5% of BEC World’s revenue, but 8.3% of its profit. As for Sorrayuth himself, the same figures show his two companies took in more than 729 million baht from their Channel 3 contracts, but provided an astounding gross (before expenses) profit of 368 million baht — a profit margin of 50.5%.
These public figures reveal two speculative moments in one.
First, no wonder Sorrayuth insists on continuing his newscasts. Who else do we know that is putting one million baht in his savings account every day of the year, with enough left over every day for dinner at the best restaurant in town?
Second, however, is why such a prominent face and credible voice would bribe an official to steal 138 million.
And hypocrisy? Guilty. A much bigger media mogul, Sondhi Limthongkul, was never made to quit work. No court or angel bailed the mistreated mushroom pickers of Kalasin while they appealed their unjust prosecution.
The Bangkok Post Sunday sent trained reporters (well, one reporter) to the streets, malls and offices of the biggest city in Thailand, where he or she asked five people from five completely different walks of life about this. Here, in no particular order, are the five answers we received: Greediness, greedy, greedy guts, greed and, from the fifth person, greed.
This is speculation. The most trusted newscaster in the nation refused to talk about the case during the long year he was awaiting trial. He refused to talk about it after the Criminal Court’s verdict. He didn’t even bother with the tired old excuse that the case was under review; he simply wouldn’t explain.
The judge explained his verdict on Monday. On Tuesday morning, Sorrayuth looked into the red eye of the camera and read that verdict. Then he said, like every person ever convicted, “I respect the court and its decision”, just as if he had a choice. He added he would appeal — he has 24 days from today to do that — and got on with the news as if nothing had occurred to change his life and his credibility 16 hours earlier.
By Tuesday afternoon, hounds were baying. Both major broadcast media groups called for Sorrayuth to get off the air. So did the ACT, Big Business’ anti-corruption voice. But ACT, well, acted. On Wednesday, Big Soap producer Saha Group withdrew its advertising and ACT announced it was organising an escalating business boycott of Channel 3 news. Dtac, Toyota and Volvo followed. The Muang Thai insurance folks pulled their adverts.
On Thursday, Sorrayuth hit @sorrayuth9111 and tweeted in Thai: “Starting this evening, I end my role as a host to prevent consequences to Channel 3 and to make everyone happy. Until we meet again.”
There is one problem. Sorrayuth, no longer the news presenter on Channel 3; check. While giving up the tiny sliver of fame on camera, however, he maintains the keys to the fortune. Teera “Reform Before Election” Tanyapaibul will be on air. Sorrayuth will be counting the loot just out of shot.
We will see, then, this week, whether all the screaming of “Where’s the ethics?” was real or personal. Everything — we can emphasise that word — everything on Channel 3 news, morning and night, is Sorrayuth’s as surely as every government policy is Prime Minister Prayut’s, even when he steps away soon for visits to Laos and Russia.