A new and credible survey of world press freedom places Thailand at No.140. Out of 180 countries, that is a scandalous place to be for a nation whose prime minister is promising a return to a system of developing democracy. On its face, such a terrible placing is a slap at the regime. For there is no denying that the fresh, global survey got Thailand's current position about right.
The survey is the newest ranking by the Europe-based Reporters Without Borders, known as RSF from its French acronym. It's one of two such annual ratings taken seriously, the other being a media survey by US-based Freedom House. While both are credible, the one by RSF is considered the harshest. It pulls no punches in its analysis of the short country reports.
If there is a valid criticism of the RSF survey that gave Thailand such a low mark, it is in its selection of countries at the top of its list. The five best-ranked countries this year are, in order, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland. The truth is that having a free press in those countries is pretty easy. Societies are homogeneous, governments are fully democratic. In short, there is really no chance of those media being un-free.
The true test of media freedom is in countries with tension, countries with harsh governments. RSF, for example, ranks the British media as No.40 and the US press as No.45 on its freedom list. These are countries with major divisions in society and with governments that hold little respect for their press. That the UK and US media speak truth to power so powerfully arguably deserves a higher ranking.
Thailand is ranked No.140, up two spots from last year, but with a virtually identical analysis. Reporters Without Borders has little respect for the Thai administration. It calls Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha "a press freedom predator". It ranks Thailand far down the list because, it says, Gen Prayut's regime "keeps journalists and citizen-journalists under permanent surveillance, often summons them for questioning, and detains them arbitrarily."
As do all criticisms of Thai media intimidation, RSF cites three laws with are incompatible with the press freedom guaranteed under the constitution. The Computer-Related Crime Act was strengthened in 2016. It is a misnamed law, since it has nothing to do with computer-related crime. Rather its goal and effect are to give government a tool to intimidate or to punish journalists and citizens for writing something upsetting to the prime minister or his administration.
While it is not very old, the CCA has been used numerous times in cases where no court would even convict on normal slander or libel charges. Most recently, the governor of Chiang Mai province, Pawin Chamniprasart, used the CCA against the editor of Chiang Mai CityLife. She had posted a cartoon that displeased the governor but almost no one else.
Another law abused often by authorities is criminal defamation. It turns a purely civil matter -- a citizen is upset over something written or stated, including by the media -- into a criminal trial. Punishment of up to two years in prison can result. This defamation, turning a disagreement into a criminal trial, is one of the chief reasons for self-censorship in Thailand. RSF, like all foreign critics, also point to the lese majeste law. Use of that law, and the average punishment by the court, has increased substantially since the coup of 2014. Warnings by the military have halted the previously healthy discussion of possible amendments to Section 112 of the Criminal Code.
Authorities should consider constructive criticism such as the RSF media freedom rankings. Without media freedom, the constitutional guarantee of free speech is just a number of pretty words.