BROADCASTING

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) must be open for scrutiny, a group of media academics says.

They urged the NBTC to be professional and answer to the public.

Their comments were made at a conference yesterday, organised by the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association ( TBJA) and the Heinrich Boell Foundation on the occasion of the first anniversary of the NBTC.

Somchai Preechasilpakul, a law lecturer at Chiang Mai University, said the NBTC was established to protect the public interest, and must honour its mission. He said that during the past year, members of the public have not dare to criticise or examine the independent organisation because they believed all elected NBTC commissioners were decent and knowledgeable.

Mr Somchai said it was high time for society to demand closer examination of this independent organisation that was wasting taxpayers' money.

Mana Treerayapiwat, a communication arts lecturer at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the NBTC should keep the public informed of its policies on issues that involved huge financial interests. Dr Mana added that the NBTC should also be open to examination by the media.

NBTC commissioner Supinya Klangnarong also said she wanted the media to investigate the NBTC more vigorously.

She said they had to invest more to do so, because the NBTC is involved in complicated international business, as well as advanced telecommunication technologies.

She said every word in each announcement of the NBTC was meaningful should be dissected by reporters.