The director of the Thailand Information Centre for Civil Rights and Investigative Journalism (TCIJ) is refusing to disclose the names of journalists implicated in a bribery scandal, saying she distrusts a panel set up by two media organisations to investigate the allegations.
Suchada Jakpisut, who released the report claiming a food giant paid reporters to suppress negative stories, said the National Press Council of Thailand (NPCT) and the News Broadcasting Council of Thailand (NBCT) had urged her to disclose the full contents of the document.
The names of media outlets and journalists listed in the report were redacted in the TCIJ version.
“I will do my best to cooperate with the media organisations, but I will not provide them the name lists and my source," she said.
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"I have a right to do so since I do not trust the panel set up by these organisations [to investigate the allegations] since it has yet to prove its transparency.
"What I can say is that those journalists who received payments are all senior reporters or media executives who have their own space to write or express their opinions to public."
The NPCT and NBCT have set up an independent panel, headed by former National Anti-Corruption Commission secretary-general Klanarong Chantik, to investigate the report, which was uploaded to the TCIJ website on Monday.
Ms Suchada said it was the duty of the panel to get the names referred to in the leaked online report.
She also said she has no intention to create conflict between the media and the food company implicated in the report.
She said she decided to release the report as she would like to let the public know about irregular relations between the company and senior journalists, which apparently resulted in less negative reports concerning the firm's controversial contract farming business.
The report was described by the TCIJ as a leaked document from the public relations unit of a giant agriculture firm.
It referred to 19 journalists from television, radio and print media who received payments from the company of 10,000-250,000 baht per month for "taking care" of information and news reports concerning the company.
Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc (CPF) later admitted the report referred to its public relations unit, but said the report had been doctored and distorted.
The company said the payments were part of regular public relations strategies to "buy advertisements", and insisted the company never paid media outlets to distort information.
But Ms Suchada disagreed, saying, "It is not money for advertisements, as it is directly paid to them [the journalists].”
She said she had received a phone call from a person who claimed to be the owner of the leaked report after it was released online, demanding that she take it down, but she refused.
Ms Suchada said she was ready to face any consequences from the release of the report, including legal action, adding she had verified the information in the report with various sources before releasing it.
The Economic Reporters Association responded Tuesday to the scandal, insisting it has maintained proper transparency and accountability in its handling of sponsorship funds given to it by both the public and private sectors.
Association president Lamyong Pokpong said all income provided by sponsors had been spent in the form of fringe benefits, such as healthcare, given to members of the association, as well as on capacity building programmes for reporters.
The association did not have any agreement to reciprocate those sponsors in an unethical way, Ms Lamyong said.
It was well aware of the importance of media ethics and encouraged its members to abide by them, she added.
The association understood the media sponsorship scandal was a sensitive issue that threatened to shatter the reputation of the media as a whole, Ms Lamyong said.
The association was willing to cooperate fully with any body that will investigate the case, she added.
No word was to hand on how long the probe is likely to last.