Thai Media Reform Panel's Ideas Go To PM Abhisit Next Month

[webfact]

Media reform panel's ideas go to PM next month

By Pravit Rojanaphruk

It will be up to the government to push for media reform after the proposals of a committee studying the issue are forwarded this year, said Yubol Benjarongkij, head of the committee appointed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

"You have to ask [the government]. Whether they use [our recommendations] or not is all right, but we will present them to elicit discussion."

Yubol, also dean of the Faculty of Communication Arts at Chulalongkorn University, said many factors were at play in determining whether there could be successful reform or not.

The committee - which Yubol preferred to call a small working group led by herself with a Bt3-million budget - recently finished gauging the views of five groups of stakeholders, including members of the public, media professionals, non-governmental organisations and media organisations.

A recommendation paper will be submitted to Abhisit by the end of November, while a focus group will be held this month along with a public forum to reconsider the current data and views.

At this stage, Yubol listed four areas for reform: lessen media interference, effective media monitoring, welfare and fair pay for journalists, and regulating Internet-based media.

On how to curb interference in the media from both the government and private corporations - which often leads to censorship of news and information - Yubol said the government might not be able to solve the issue by itself and greater knowledge among the public on media censorship and manipulation was needed.

"We need to raise awareness among the public as to how the domination can be reduced," she said.

On monitoring media performance and ethics, Yubol said input showed a divergence of opinion between, on the one hand, media professionals and media organisations that wanted to retain defamation law as a check and balance for possible abuse and, on the other, consumer groups and NGOs that wanted a more permanent mechanism introduced.

Regarding the welfare of media professionals, Yubol said journalists tended to be paid less than their peers in other private-sector areas. A pay rise commensurate with the public expectation of their watchdog role was needed so they would not need to earn extra income on the side. Some, said Yubol, proposed there be a law to ensure minimum decent pay and benefits.

On how the Internet-based media should be regulated, Yubol said many parties believed not much could be done, given the open and decentralised nature of Internet communication. "Everyone thinks that it would be difficult [to regulate it] at all. So there is a need for public media literacy."

Yubol admitted some anxiety about online contents deemed as defaming the royal institution, while others were concerned about the unverifiability of the information on cyberspace. There were also worries about online criminal activities, she said.

Asked whether the committee had any specific recommendation for the Information and Communication Technology Ministry, which is very active blocking or censoring contents deemed against national security or against the monarchy institution, Yubol said: "We haven't paid attention to the ICT Ministry much because it's the government. We won't be interfering with their role."

-- The Nation 2010-10-07

[asiawatcher]

Standard of journalism in Thailand is atrocious, with articles drifting from the topic, grammatically incorrect and poor layout. They (the journalists) would do well to read about structure (Egri, Aristotle) and learn about story layout and ruthless edit to remove all the waffle (but if they are being paid by the word you can understand why it is such a mess).

But this article tries to carry some of the issues but goes all over the place. Regulation of internet and what people say seems to be a concern so not working on media reform but more on control of media. So it seems!

Edited October 7, 2010 by asiawatcher

[SomTumTiger]

The more the media shines the spotlight around on the inequalities and problems in Thailand, the more the cockroaches will run for cover, and that is a good thing.

[SergeiY]

Yubol said: "We haven't paid attention to the ICT Ministry much because it's the government. We won't be interfering with their role."

Shouldn't that be exactly the job of journalists or the media? Pay close attention to what the government is doing and be some-kind of a watchdog?

[Hardback]

Not that it's any great upholder of democratic values, but Cambodia ranks higher than Thailand does on the world press freedom index (based on 2008-2009 data).

Interestingly enough, Thailand ranks higher than Singapore.

Source: Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom index 2009

Edited October 7, 2010 by Hardback

[Thai at Heart]

Get rid of the ridiculous libel laws, and then perhaps you can start to have some sort of investigative journalism.

[phiphidon]

Regarding the welfare of media professionals, Yubol said journalists tended to be paid less than their peers in other private-sector areas. A pay rise commensurate with the public expectation of their watchdog role was needed so they would not need to earn extra income on the side.

Assuming that some of them have second jobs, could it be that maybe the less scrupulous journalists find other ways to earn extra income whilst carrying out their jobs?