In a bid to polish its tarnished image, presumably following the series of scandals surrounding the infamous hit-and-run case involving the Red Bull scion, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has formed four task forces to promote the agency's public relations campaigns.
The OAG said it was well aware of the impact of social media that can quickly spread disinformation and the task forces would tackle this problem.
Of the task forces, established on Feb 22, one has been assigned to monitor the media or anyone that distorts the news or information about the OAG leading to the agency's image being damaged, reported the Isara News Agency.
In the Isara report, the OAG promised to take legal action against anyone who distributes disinformation that taints its image.
In its report about the teams' assignments, Isara revealed documents that see Prayuth Petchkhun, the deputy spokesman of the OAG, taking a prominent role in all the task forces.
Indeed, it's welcome news that the OAG has started to think about its reputation which has long been going downhill as a result of its mishandling of the deadly 2012 crash that enabled Vorayuth Yoovidhya to escape prosecution.
It allowed Mr Vorayuth to exploit a technicality to drag out the investigation by submitting a petition seeking fair treatment more than six times and the case went nowhere as charge after charge against the accused reached its statute of limitations.
However, it was the decision in the middle of last year by then-deputy attorney-general Nate Naksuk and Ittiporn Kaewthip, then-deputy director-general of the Department of Criminal Litigation, to drop the reckless driving causing death charge against Mr Vorayuth, citing "new evidence and new witnesses", that triggered an outpouring of public outrage.
The groundswell of public disappointment with the OAG, and also the police, was so strong that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was forced to step in.
The premier appointed former graftbuster Vicha Mahakun to lead a panel which eventually concluded that there were irregularities and interventions that had aimed to whitewash the wealthy scion.
Back then the prime minister said he wanted to see transparency in the notorious case.
However, it seems there has been no progress since the Vicha panel handed in its report which pinpointed those in the wrong to Gen Prayut last year.
The panel recommended an ethics probe into the delay and intentional derailment of the justice process against Mr Vorayuth. The question remains of whether the OAG has followed the Vicha panel's recommendations, and if not, why not?
It should be noted that Mr Ittiporn, now the spokesman of the OAG, is head of the public relations task force. Mr Nate who had pledged to resign over the scandal was moved to a new office in a regular transfer.
If the OAG is really serious about correcting its image, it must go beyond superficial PR stunts, and stop using the law to silence critics or the media.
If the agency wants to safeguard its reputation, what it needs to do is perform its duty straightforwardly.
At the very least, it would be helpful if the agency took seriously the Vicha panel's recommendations: investigating those who tried to derail the justice process for the sake of the Red Bull scion, and convinced the public that justice was running its course.
This is what the public is more than eager to find out about.