Pheu Thai Denies Bribing Press

[webfact]

Pheu Thai Denies Bribing Press

The Pheu Thai Party has issued a statement denying allegations that it bribed members of the press to write favorable stories about its campaign. It claims that the email account of a senior adviser was hacked and it had nothing to do with the controversial email that was leaked.

Yesterday, an email sent from an address belonging to a Pheu Thai adviser was leaked into the hands of the press. The email was addressed to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

In the email, the adviser claimed that he had spent more than 20 thousand baht wining and dining certain members of the press last month alone. These senior reporters were also named in the email.

The content of the email also included advice for Thaksin to publicly announce that he will not return to Thailand even if his sister was to become prime minister.

-- Tan Network 2011-07-01

[RogueExpat]

Only 20,000B? The PT advisor must not be that senior.

The PT canvasser in my neighbourhood has (had) a cash expense acount of roughly 30,000B per day, for the last 5 weeks. Saw him three days ago and the guy is an absolute wreck from "wining & dining & turning up to every single function" and obviously not getting much sleep.

Would love to know the names of the "senior" reporters so they can be pressured into comment.....

[TAWP]

So it was "leaked into the hands of the press" -- when can we expect the actual content to be reported, verbatim?

I know we live in Mickey Mouse-land when it comes to reporting news, but hopefully some source is brave enough...

[Thai at Heart]

Twenty thousand baht in the last month alone, on several members of the press!!!! Cheap charlies, the lot of them, or they went dutch.

Obviously, Leo and Bpa Mee Nam are the order of the day in PTP land. Suthep got more just to drive to do his cooking show.

[whybother]

Twenty thousand baht in the last month alone, on several members of the press!!!! Cheap charlies, the lot of them, or they went dutch.

Obviously, Leo and Bpa Mee Nam are the order of the day in PTP land. Suthep got more just to drive to do his cooking show.

You mean Samak, don't you?

[hellodolly]

Funny the nation is not commenting on this. Maybe they were wined and dined by a cheap Charley.

[Thai at Heart]

Twenty thousand baht in the last month alone, on several members of the press!!!! Cheap charlies, the lot of them, or they went dutch.

Obviously, Leo and Bpa Mee Nam are the order of the day in PTP land. Suthep got more just to drive to do his cooking show.

You mean Samak, don't you?

whoops

[Ricardo]

Wonder what the budget was, for perception-management online, on all the thai websites ? Somewhat higher I suspect.

[Robby nz]

Watched a program a couple of days ago on an international asian channel that was little short of a PT advert.

They interviewed a number of people who were obviously PT supporters and gave a very bias view of the red riots, even stating that a 'third hand' probably lit all the fires in BKK.

They stated that all the deaths and injuries were caused by the Govt and army, not a mention of grenades and black clad gunmen.

Even BBC and Al Jazera seem to have a PT slant on their reporting, such as 'a report from our corrospondent in Chaing Mai'.

[webfact]

Pheu Thai denies giving media members Bt20,000 each to publicize Yingluck; says e-mail of party's deputy spokesman was hacked /TAN_Network

[Thai at Heart]

Pheu Thai denies giving media members Bt20,000 each to publicize Yingluck; says e-mail of party's deputy spokesman was hacked /TAN_Network

The most obvious defence of this is that 20k wouldn't even buy a night out in Rachada. Seems if that is all it takes to get publicity it is money very well spent I would think.

[RKASA]

So it was "leaked into the hands of the press" -- when can we expect the actual content to be reported, verbatim?

I know we live in Mickey Mouse-land when it comes to reporting news, but hopefully some source is brave enough...

Other papers have some info

How does ASTV Manager online come by win's email and it is addressed to another person not someone at Manager are they crafting or hacking a copy of it? - the investigation should first center on the source of this email and possible libel then worry about the content. The fact they even said they have it (real or not) is a bigger story.

This reminds my of Dan rather and the Bush letter that was faked. After the damage is done they will claim they to are victims.

20,000 baht will not buy that much khoe pot and chang these days, and putting out some food at a press release is hardly a bribe for the press are they that under paid - do they eat that much?

I think manager is owned by or run by one of the leaders of the same group that days ago said they would discredit Phua Thai by any means before the election. They are one in the same person?

[arrowsdawdle]

Maybe wining and dining meant brown bagging it, or more correctly, brown enveloping it. Still, pretty cheap budget if influence were the objective. Any way, this could only apply to some newspapers because the TV channels all broadcast the same news, same news video clips, and same AV informercials so they are clearly controlled.

[PoorSucker]

Googled +"Pheu Thai" +Denies.

Got 96,400 results.

[cdnvic]

Pheu Thai denies giving media members Bt20,000 each to publicize Yingluck; says e-mail of party's deputy spokesman was hacked /TAN_Network

Considering the number of people in Thailand that use their birthday as a password, I'm not dismissing this.

[TAWP]

The email might have been hacked - and therefor the emails leaked.

It doesn't mean the email is faked.

Easy enough, publicize the full email, including IP headers.

[gregb]

The email might have been hacked - and therefor the emails leaked.

It doesn't mean the email is faked.

Easy enough, publicize the full email, including IP headers.

No. They are saving that to release in court when they try to charge the PT with a campaign violation and get them disqualified.

[Crushdepth]

Googled +"Pheu Thai" +Denies.

Got 96,400 results.

+"Thaksin" + denies: About 1,040,000 results (0.20 seconds)

[RKASA]

Crushdepth + denies=4,230,000 .12sec

check it out

[gregb]

Crushdepth + denies=4,230,000 .12sec

check it out

I got 7 results when I tried +crushdepth +denies, and one of them was this thread. The other 2 numbers posted above for Thaksin and "Pheu Thai" are correct.

Edited July 1, 2011 by gregb

[cdnvic]

One member just got a long holiday for not taking the pinned topic about The Monarchy seriously.

[soundman]

Posts have been removed for flaming.

Keep it civil guys.

[kmj]

Abhisit denies About 1,010,000 results (0.09 seconds)

[whybother]

Given the stupid questions Thai journalists ask, it's not surprising there are so many reports of denials.

[phiphidon]

Abhisit denies About 1,010,000 results (0.09 seconds)

Google is your friend

Abhisit admits 341,000 results

Thaksin admits 697,000 results

Perhaps Thaksin has more to admit about (insert emoticon for tongue firmly in cheek).

Sorry, pointless exercise but I couldn't help myself.

Edit to add for the sake of fairness...............(insert emoticon for tongue firmly in cheek)

Abhisit sorry 530,000 results

Thaksin sorry 950,000 results

Edited July 1, 2011 by phiphidon

[gregb]

Abhisit denies About 1,010,000 results (0.09 seconds)

This is a really stupid thing to be wasting bandwidth over, but it bugs me when people put up intentionally incorrect information, no matter how stupid the information is. The above number is an exaggeration by almost 60%. The correct number is 638,000.

[cdnvic]

Lets get back on topic. You can play with Google elsewhere.

[samran]

I believe the story for one.

I remember driving past the Thai Journalists Association building in Soi Aree back in the early 2000's and seeing it covered from top to toe in Thai Rak Thai posters and banners.

Pretty obvious that sections of the media were either extemely partisan, or that they were being intimidated to do such things.

Either way, having a free press in Thailand under Dear Leader is a difficult thing.