Let Us Work Without Interference: Thai Media Groups

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WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY

Let us work without interference: media groups

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Two media professional organisations yesterday called on the media to adhere to professional ethics and called on the government and interested groups not to interfere in the work of journalists.

The Thai Journalists Association (TJA) and the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association (TBJA) issued the calls on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day yesterday.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) has declared May 3 of every year to be World Press Freedom Day to emphasise the will and the principles of the freedom of the press and to remind society of the importance of a free press.

In a joint statement, the TJA and TBJA said divisive ideas and political ideologies had led to violence over past years, prompting working difficulties for local media.

The statement said several conflicting political parties have started their own media businesses - including newspapers, satellite-broadcast television and social media. This has resulted in the media - which is committed to the principle of professional journalism - facing many challenges from these political groups.

At the same time, the media itself has to face many technological changes that affect its work through a wide range of media competition.

The two organisations have marked World Press Freedom Day by issuing a five-point statement:

1. All media organisations must be aware of their responsibilities under the ethical framework to avoid provocation and violence amid the country's divisive politics, even though the Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression.

2. Local media must not be threatened and interfered with by powerful figures in the state, political groups, influential figures and vested interest groups.

3. The government and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) must be sincere in reforming radio and television so they can perform their duty without interference from the state and vested interest groups, to be in line with the will of the Constitution. The government itself should be more careful about media intervention and should not use state media as its political tool.

4. The government must stop pushing for laws considered limiting to freedom of expression - such as an amendment to the Press Registration Act. And there must be no amendment to a clause that guaranteed the rights to freedom of expression stated in the Constitution.

5. The public must acquire media literacy, to be open-minded and listen to a variety of media amid the country's divisive politics to save itself from becoming political tools - and at the same time civic media and social media users should also be aware of their reporting responsibilities.

-- The Nation 2012-05-04

[noitom]

Just bluster and smoke blowin' in the wind. Five point bluster.