On Thursday Morning, Police Lieutenant Colonel Suwanporn, Deputy Chief of Sriracha Police Station held a press conference to announce the arrest of two men accused of the murder of a local drug dealer.

The two men, Khun Saeksun aged 41 and Khun Jackgrit aged 27 are thought to be part of a 4 man gang who brutally murdered Khun Sha-on aged 43 on 2nd November in a small village in Sriracha District.The body was discovered by Police in an abandoned car.

The identity of the four man gang was known by Police at an early stage in the murder investigation and a man hunt begun with the eventual arrest of two of the suspects, who were found in possession of firearms thought to have been used in the shooting, on Wednesday Evening.

It is thought the shooting took place because the victim implicated the four men in a number of drug related cases, even though the men paid the victims bail money earlier in the month after he was arrested and charged with dealing in class 1 drugs by Sriracha Police.

The two arrestees are now facing lengthy jail terms if found guilty of murdering Khun Sha-on.

Pattaya One News

Hmmm, two murder stories in one day ?

Better not be any more for the rest of the week (or hope the mayor doesn't find out) !

But then again, TV isn't considered a media outlet, and I think the "2 stories per week" rule applies to each individual media outlet. So PDN can publish 2 per week, PCN (or Pattaya One) can publish 2 different stories, Pattaya Mail, Pattaya Today, Pattaya People, etc can each publish 2 different stories per week. There's at least 10 stories per week right there.

But who decides which outlet gets to publish which story ? After all, stories involving farang murders (or murderers) would draw much higher ratings than ones about some low-life local drug dealer or illegal immigrant construction worker.

Should they have a bidding system for each story ? Or maybe City Hall could tender contracts. Highest bidder can report 2 farang murder stories per week. 2nd highest can report 1 farang murder, and 1 farang murderer story per week (if any such are still available), and so on down the line.

Contracts, to be fair, would have to be rebid every month to allow losing outlets the chance to get the "good stories". Contracts during the high season would require additional "incentives" from the bidders.

Of course, during slow periods when there are few (if any) stories to report, the minimum bid price will be raised to offset the costs.

There is a potential drawback to this system though, as some "less scrupulous" media outlets may resort to "creating" their own stories (possibly using rival media personnel as their "victims") so as not to lose out on potentially lucrative news stories.

(Then again, that may not be such a bad thing after all when you think about it).