What's Going On At The Bangkok Post?

[wilgus]

PRESS IN THAILAND FEARS INCREASED GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE

JANE PERLEZ

2004 New York Times News Service

BANGKOK, Thailand _ The editor of an influential English-language newspaper that has been critical of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been moved out of his job. The action has renewed criticisms by journalists and the opposition of government interference in Thailand's press.

Veera Prateepchaikul, who has headed the newspaper, the Bangkok Post, for nearly two years, was transferred Friday to another job in the corporation that runs the newspaper.

In December, Veera ran an unusually bold front-page headline based on a statement in King Bhumibol Adulyadej's annual speech in which he warned the prime minister not to be arrogant.

Few people disputed what the king said about the prime minister, whose aggressive style has brought similar comments from the king before.

But the coverage by the Post is said to have infuriated Thaksin, who ran a telecommunications and media conglomerate before becoming prime minister in 2001 and who has bristled at his critics.

There have been frequent complaints from the main opposition party and among Thai journalists that Thaksin tries to interfere with editorial content in the newspapers.

``There has been a gradual reining in of the press since Thaksin came to power,'' said Lin Neumann, who until last month was based here as a representative of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. ``Every Thai journalist says there are a lot of phone calls from the government, a lot of pressure.''

Soon after news of Veera's dismissal became public on Friday, 80 journalists at the Bangkok Post signed a letter saying that they interpreted his removal as a challenge to the paper's editorial independence.

The Nation, another influential English-language daily, devoted most of its Saturday front page to the troubles at the Post. In a front page commentary, The Nation said that although the Post and the Nation had been rivals for three decades, they had competed for the sake of raising ``public awareness of the prospects and problems of our society.''

``At this time, our hearts are with them,'' The Nation said.

The storm over the dismissal was particularly intense because these two English-language newspapers have taken a far more critical attitude toward Thaksin than the Thai-language papers. The two newspapers said he had been inept in handling the bird-flu crisis and that he had failed to inform the public about the problem in a timely fashion.

The two English-language newspapers are important for two reasons, Neumann said. They are seen by the government as Thailand's face to the outside world. Furthermore, most television outlets are owned by the Thai military or government departments, Neumann said.

The one television station that does not fall under government ownership, known as iTV is partly owned by Shin Corp., the telecommunications company founded by Thaksin.

Post Publishing, which publishes The Bangkok Post, is 30 percent owned by the family of the retail group headed by Suthikiati Chirathivat.

Suthikiati said that Veera's removal from the editorship was ``purely a structural matter of the organization.''

But at The Nation, the journalists were not convinced. Kavi Chongkittavorn, assistant group editor of The Nation, said he believed that Suthikiati decided that he should ``better protect my interests and get rid of the editor who was critical of the government.''

[Foggy Bottom]

Here we go again .... shades of Rodney Tasker and Shaun Crispin of Far Eastern Economic Review (a Dow Jones publication) and their reporting of one of the King's Speeches.

I foresee a time when Thailand's free press will be based in Malaysia, just as Burma's free press are now based in Thailand.