By Max Constant
BANGKOK (AA) – Thailand’s prime minister has shot down demands for more press freedoms, with Thai journalists and media advocacy associations continuing to express concern over liberties they consider to be “at their lowest ebb” since a 2014 coup.
Local media reported Wednesday that a reporter covering government house had been sternly rebuked on World Press Freedom Day when he tried to underline to junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha that “the freedom of the press is the freedom of Thai citizens”.
“Who said that? You’d better be careful,” threatened Chan-ocha, who appeared visibly upset by the comment.
“Don’t you already have enough freedom?” he asked, when a group of journalists asked him to abolish orders restraining press freedom.
Since overthrowing the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in May 2014, the junta has passed several orders placing media under the military regime’s strict control, particularly for reports deemed “detrimental to national security” — a notion interpreted very broadly by military judges.
Article 44 of the interim constitution grants the junta chief authority to close newspapers or TV channels without any judicial, legislative or executive oversight.
On Tuesday, representatives of the kingdom’s main professional media associations — the Thai Journalists Association and the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association – had initially sought to give Chan-ocha a letter spelling out their requests in terms of press freedom.
The PM’s entourage, however, prevented them from doing so and they were only able to hand over a T-shirt emblazoned with an affiliated slogan.
At an evening event organized by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, journalists and analysts lamented what they described as a drastic drop in media liberties in a country once touted as a hub of free press in Southeast Asia.
The secretary-general of the Southeast Asia Press Alliance, a regional body monitoring media issues, told attendees “from the perspective of a media organization, we are at the lowest ebb”.
“The military government is increasingly using heavy-handed tactics, laws and non-legal tactics, to stiffen the citizens and the media. It is really worrisome,” Kulachada Chaipipat said.
“Thailand used to be a showcase for press freedom [in Southeast Asia] along with the Philippines and Indonesia, but now we are in deep trouble.”
The web editor of Prachatai, an outspoken news portal open to columnists critical of the junta, concurred but highlighted that the situation may appear almost normal for some journalists.
“Thai media can be free and have a very beautiful scene in the greenhouse,” Chiranuch Premchaiporn told the public, among whom were United States Ambassador Glyn Davies and several military officers sent to photograph and record the event.
“You can do your job beautifully and with fresh air. You can do your job provided you limit your view at a certain level,” she added.
Premchaiporn, who was sentenced in 2012 to a suspended eight-month jail term for a comment posted on Prachatai deemed to defame Thailand’s monarchy, underlined the enormous pressure experienced by broadcast media.
“The junta does not have to do the job themselves, they do it through the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission,” she said, referring to an independent agency tasked with allocating promoting media reform.
“The commission can shut down a TV station, the junta does not need to intervene directly and look bad,” she underlined.
Only a representative of the Bangkok Post, deputy-editor Nopporn Wong-Anan, sounded less negative.
“So far [the Post journalists] have been able to say what they want to say and report what they want to report without any interference,” he said.
In 2015, Thailand’s ranking on the Press Freedom Index, published annually by media rights organization Reporters Without Borders, dropped from 130th place to 134th compared to the previous year.
