Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's tetchiness towards the media can be taken as a positive. It shows that the press is doing its job, and doing it well enough that it is having an effect on -- and is clearly rankling -- the highest political authority in this country. But Gen Prayut's view of the Thai media is not a typical one, and neither is it predictable as he showed again last week. In suddenly lashing out at the political programming of Thai PBS, the premier reinforced his combative views of media freedom which do not reflect the mainstream.
The media and the powerful are never really expected to work in harmony. The top ranks of government speak from a position of power. The media's aim is to speak truth to that power. At the best of times, there will be tension between a properly functioning government and a righteous media.
Not all leaders tolerate a functioning press. Even in a peaceful, functioning democracy a government can fail to account for its actions in a way that satisfies the media. In Thailand, it has always seemed that the more authoritarian the government and its leaders, the greater the division with the media. Gen Prayut and the Government House press corps have agreeable moments -- and disagreeable ones as well.
But the Thai PBS outburst was made more shocking by its suddenness. Gen Prayut has frequently lashed out at the media, so there's nothing new there. An epic example occurred last month in Songkhla when the premier engaged in what amounted to a day-long broadside -- followed quickly by a public apology. But in singling out the country's first independent, public broadcaster, he set a new standard for his oft-expressed distaste for journalists.
There is no fair way to summarise the prime minister's outburst other than to say it was a demand that PBS fall into line with, and justify, government policy. He backed it with the excuse that the station is financed by the state budget.
That is one way to put it. The other is that it is financed by every Thai citizen who drinks alcohol or smokes cigarettes, because an exclusive portion of the "sin taxes" on these products allows the station to operate.
Prime Minister Prayut seems to be using the fallacious argument made famous by a hated French king, that the state is the government. This is the basis of the premier's long misunderstanding. He was not wrong last week in his remarks on Thai PBS. The broadcaster is, indeed, responsible to the state -- that is, all 68 million Thais who make up the nation.
This was the key reason for the founding of the station, its continued funding, and the need to sustain it. Long before there was a military regime, there was a need for a public broadcaster to make intelligent programmes by adults for adults.
Gen Prayut feels that Thai PBS is one-sided, both in its news reports and analysis, which as he sees it, "allows people to scold the government".
Attempts by political leaders to intimidate, censor or "advise" the media seldom end happily. Gen Prayut should take the high road. If he persists, his criticism of the country's only public TV station will be tremendously divisive and the inflamed arguments will have no winners.
The government has plenty of propaganda outlets in print and broadcasting that can be used to explain the regime's policies. Trying to subvert Thai PBS by the mention of its funding is unfair and can only ever be counter-productive.