During the past week, the media has been hit by a double whammy that virtually turned its world upside down.
The week began with a major headline about a report alleging a major food conglomerate manipulates the news media to maintain its polished image. But what got everyone in the media excited was the further revelation that a number of journalists were essentially on the company’s payroll.
The sensational report was based on a document obtained by the Thailand Information Centre for Civil Rights and Investigative Journalism (TCIJ) which operates an investigative reporting website tcijthai.com.
While the names of the parties concerned were blacked out in the published report, CP Foods Pcl, a subsidiary of the agro-business conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, later conceded that the document might have come from its own public relations department. However, it said the leaked document had been doctored.
Media associations immediately launched action, setting up an investigating committee led by a former graft buster Klanarong Chanthik.
But the TCIJ director, Suchada Jakpisut, made it clear she would not cooperate with the panel, saying she had no trust in the media associations to sort out their own affairs. She accused news media firms of having too cosy a relationship with big businesses.
These were harsh words from a member of the news media itself and a bitter pill to swallow for all major media outlets, not just the media associations.
However, what followed afterward appeared to lend credence to Ms Suchada’s conviction. Except for the Post Publishing Pcl, the publisher of Bangkok Post, Post Today and M2F, which revealed that one of the journalists in question was one of its editors, no other outlet has made discernible efforts to follow suit.
Thus far, no media organisation has shown an interest in pursuing the news, which is the biggest scandal to hit the media industry in years. Once the setting up of an investigating panel was announced, the brouhaha suddenly went quiet.
No one seems interested in obtaining the report in question. It’s true Ms Suchada has refused to release her copy of the report to the panel, but she was not the only one holding it. CP Foods, which alleged that Ms Suchada’s copy was doctored, should have a good reason to release a “non-doctored” copy for the media to verify the facts. But it didn’t and no one in the media asked for it, which made the whole thing seem suspicious.
Similar allegations of journalists on the take from businesses have been made before. But never has one been made so clearly in print. I would have thought media operators would take it as a chance to get to the bottom of it and clean out the bad apples. But no: Everyone is content to wait for the fact-finding panel’s report.
Nevertheless, this scandal has laid bare aspects of the Thai media that have damaged its professionalism.
Journalism used to be a profession of “idealists”. Those who became journalists despite low pay and threats of physical harm and economic ruin from the influential figures and authoritarian governments under military rule.
Now it’s mostly business. For some, monetary gain has taken over from professional pride and idealistic goals as the primary objective of the job. The line between editorial integrity and business bottom lines has become blurred to the point where a journalist may also wear a business hat without nagging at his or her conscience.
The media associations themselves are not beyond reproach. They have been accused of seeking business sponsorships for their activities. Their expressed objective to police their members and hold them to high ethical standards is often subject to ridicule.
In the same week, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) dropped a bombshell on the news media in the form of Announcement 97. Essentially, it prohibits negative reporting about the coup and the coup-makers by either the media or any person. The “person” part covers users of social and alternative media. So basically everyone is covered.
What got the established media all worked up was the provision that allowed the authorities to shut down the operation of any guilty party. This harked back to the bad old days under military rule when soldiers shut down the presses of belligerent newspapers.
While the NCPO has subsequently modified its announcement to pacify the agitated media organisations, the media have been warned that the junta will be willing to bring out a big stick if and when it so pleases.
There is no doubt that Announcement 97, even in its modified form, is still a grave threat to freedom of expression. The greatest impact will be felt by civil society, especially advocacy groups.
In the past, advocacy groups depended on the established media to disseminate information for them. They still do to a large extent.
But in this era of global connectivity, alternative channels of communication are open wide for them. Everyone with access to a computer can be a medium, and advocacy groups have made good use of the technology to bring news to the world, often news ignored by the established media but which have real impacts on people’s lives.
To say that the media need to reform themselves is to state the obvious. New technologies have rendered their old modes of operation obsolete and the survival of many media organisations is under threat. They need to reinvent themselves to stay relevant. And strange as it may seem, they need to go back to the past to achieve that. They need to reclaim part of their old idealism. The separation of editorial and business operations must be made clear.
Most importantly, they need to get close to the people once again. In spite of everything else, people still need them to be their voices in the face of multiple encroaching threats from technology and development.
The threat from the NCPO will eventually go away, as will the NCPO itself. But the media will soldier on. They need to be the people’s pillars of strength while deriving strength from the people and refusing to be swept away by business greed.
Wasant Techawongtham is former News Editor, Bangkok Post.