"insight" Programme About Thailand Tonight

[Steve2UK]

Tonight at 19.30 (Thai time), Channel NewsAsia will air a programme in its "Insight" series:

"After countless coups and a long list of premiers, Thailand is facing yet another leadership crisis. Find out what’s next for Thailand on Insight this Thu, Dec 18 @ 2030hrs (Singapore time)."

Being a near neighbour, it will be interesting to see their take on events. Maybe just as interesting to see if the usual suspects condemn its content just because of who is broadcasting it. Maybe they'd like to take a gamble and condemn the source before they see the content? About two and a half hours to go before it airs...........

[For those who don't know, Channel NewsAsia is part of MediaCorp News Pte Ltd which is 100% owned by the Temasek investment company - which is 100% owned by the Singapore Government]

[Steve2UK]

BUMP - starts in 5 minutes time.

[JetsetBkk]

* bump *

Was it any good?

[Steve2UK]

* bump *

Was it any good?

For a 25-minute programme on a complex subject, I'd say not bad at all. I spotted a couple of minor factual errors, but that's not unusual with a subject one knows reasonably well. Pretty well-balanced overall, some good interviews with SG-based academics - mainly looking at what comes next with Abhisit at the helm and the problems he faces........ therefore giving an overview of how things got to the stage they're at now. My overall take is that they were a bit coy in how they covered the "hidden hand" aspect - but it was at least mentioned by one of the interviewees. I'd give it 8/10.

[Koo82]

I missed it as I didn't read this topic yesterday.

I watched Truth Today as usual.

[JetsetBkk]

For a 25-minute programme on a complex subject, I'd say not bad at all. I spotted a couple of minor factual errors, but that's not unusual with a subject one knows reasonably well. Pretty well-balanced overall, some good interviews with SG-based academics - mainly looking at what comes next with Abhisit at the helm and the problems he faces........ therefore giving an overview of how things got to the stage they're at now. My overall take is that they were a bit coy in how they covered the "hidden hand" aspect - but it was at least mentioned by one of the interviewees. I'd give it 8/10.

I missed it as I didn't read this topic yesterday.

I watched Truth Today as usual.

Thanks for the report Steve.

Can you guys say which TV service these channels are on. I get only UBC so have MCOT news at midnight on channel 9 and channel 3 news at 4:30 pm, but the translation on that one is sometimes appalling.

[Steve2UK]

For a 25-minute programme on a complex subject, I'd say not bad at all. I spotted a couple of minor factual errors, but that's not unusual with a subject one knows reasonably well. Pretty well-balanced overall, some good interviews with SG-based academics - mainly looking at what comes next with Abhisit at the helm and the problems he faces........ therefore giving an overview of how things got to the stage they're at now. My overall take is that they were a bit coy in how they covered the "hidden hand" aspect - but it was at least mentioned by one of the interviewees. I'd give it 8/10.

I missed it as I didn't read this topic yesterday.

I watched Truth Today as usual.

Thanks for the report Steve.

Can you guys say which TV service these channels are on. I get only UBC so have MCOT news at midnight on channel 9 and channel 3 news at 4:30 pm, but the translation on that one is sometimes appalling.

Apologies for the late response, I only just saw your additional post.

I'm in Chiang Mai and get the local WETV cable service - which includes Channel NewsAsia. I guess it's not on UBC/True (which I had all last year and don't remember seeing them included). It has been very useful to watch over the last few months as their Thailand correspondent (Anasuya Sanyal) tends to give a very balanced and well-researched perspective. Being a near neighbour with a mission to cover "regional" news, they give rather more time to the Thai situation than you (understandably) get from BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera etc.

Incidentally, I should have mentioned that a couple of the SG-based academics interviewed were laying more emphasis on the loss of business investment (arising from political uncertainty, actual/potential disturbances and, of course, the airport occupations) rather than loss of tourist visitors - something to the effect of "with investment dollars being scarce because of the global financial crisis, why would anyone risk putting them in Thailand now - compared to Malaysia, Vietnam etc?". Different perspective from the western media which have tended to concentrate on the visitor aspect - not to say that tourism from SG to Thailand is insignificant.

[Steve2UK]

Perhaps a Mod could amend the thread title now ? The original was intended to be topical - plainly isn't now. Or delete it.

[JetsetBkk]

Apologies for the late response, I only just saw your additional post.

I'm in Chiang Mai and get the local WETV cable service - which includes Channel NewsAsia. I guess it's not on UBC/True...

Thanks for the info Steve2UK - you're right, it's not on UBC. In fact, there is very little Thai news in English on UBC. As I said before, I think (?), just a few minutes at midnight on Channel 9, and an hour and a half at 4:30 pm on Channel 3 where the female interpreter is so bad I sometimes have to change channels for fear of throwing something at the TV.

Today there was a film of Abhisit (and I presume his new cabinet), all dressed in white sitting down, posing for pictures in front of what looked like Government House. This lasted for several minutes with a Thai commentary in the background, but not a single word during or after the film from the interpreter, although you could hear her breathing and sniffing in the background - an absolutely pathetic performance.