Pheu Thai list MP and United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) core member Went Tojirakarn on Monday asked AsiaUpdate, the satellite TV station for the red-shirts, why it has removed shows hosted by four leading red-shirt figures from its programming schedule.
Weng Tojirakarn (Photo by Patipat Janthong)
The four are Sombat Boonngamanong, leader of the Red Sunday Group, Tida Thawornseth, the UDD chair, Jatuporn Prompan, a UDD core member, and Deputy Commerce Minister Nattawut Saikuar, also a UDD core member.
They all have voiced opposition to the amnesty bill as revised by the House scrutiny committee to offer a blanket amnesty, which they said would allow those who ordered the crackdowns on red-shirt protesters in 2010, resulting in 92 deaths and hundreds of injuries, to go unpunished.
Mr Weng said he did not understand why the executives of the satellite TV station did this, saying that this showed they did not support democracy, which in principle does not obstruct but is open to the expression of different opinions.
He said he personally agreed to the opposition to the blanket amnesty, which if allowed to go into effect would stop attempts to establish the truth surrounding the deaths and injuries inflicted on the red-shirts.
The executives of AsiaUpdate should reconsider their decision concerning the shows hosted by the four red-shirt leaders, Mr Weng said.
Mr Weng said despite the differences of opinion over the amnesty bill, all the red-shirts are still friends with a common enemy - the Democrat Party, which, since its inception, had supported military coups.