"I don't know what's wrong with the paper. It criticises everyone who becomes prime minister. What's good about this kind of practice?"

Two points to note;

1) It would seem this unnamed paper is fair and reasonable, as all the PM's I have observed in the past decade or so really need some criticism or a reality check.

2) This is not the first PM in that time to complain about being criticised, but if things go the way they do with this bloke, this is the first one to not have enough of a thick skin to ignore the barbs of the press and get on with the job at hand.

Without more information it's a bit difficult to say if this unnamed newspaper is fair and reasonable.

Mind you, even with unfair and unreasonable comments, politicians are just free to have a go at. With the Martial Law in place one needs to be more careful but critique can be formulated in a reasonable way and defended as such.

The unnamed newspaper is probably a Thai language one? Anyone here who knows the name, has read some of it?

Don't know how many times this needs to be posted:

Please use discretion in your references to the government. Phrases which can be considered as anti-coup will be removed. Referring to Thailand or the government as a dictatorship, military dictatorship or other such terms will be removed.

Politics is a cut throat business, no matter what happens good or bad somebody will always have a negative comment. one can do 999 things correctly but if one makes a single mistake in politics the 999 good are forgotten and fuelled by idle mouths that come crawling out like vipers from a dark pit. perhaps its a good thing to have elections in 2016, this will give plenty time for us to clean up and eliminate the undesirable elements in our society.

"...made him angry, and thus reduce his demeanour as the prime minister."

An understatement.

Not even a civil human:

"...this casts me in a negative light"

The Paper does this?

Be careful, posting that or, the Junta is gonna ban our favorite videostreamer....

“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

― Emiliano Zapata

Careful? pffft...

Ohh poor Prayuth
Feels just like being be married, naa?

Prayuth wants fair and balanced Thai press.

Maybe Prayut should tackle it this way. Newspapers considered “critical” of the government can have their advertisements pulled, first by the advertising agency owned by Prayut family members, then later by state enterprises under government control. Toeing the government line could bring financial rewards. “Friendly” newspapers could be pleasantly surprised by the increased advertisements from business concerns related to the country’s CEO’s empire. It worked for thaksin.

Besides, I thought bad military Junta's just shut down newspapers that complain. I thought that bad military Juntas arrested the staff of these papers? Nope? None of that here. What does this ex military PM do?Lodges a complaint with the press association. How refreshingly democratic.

And for him to complain it seems that freedom of the press is alive and well.

The doom and gloomers must hate this.

Actually, it seems that the junta control of the press is not focused on exclusion of news stories, but more on the inclusion of nonsensical propaganda pieces, usually trumpeting the “understanding” of foreign governments for the junta’s repression.

Fair enough.

Good to see him follow "due process" though, through democratic channels.

He could have tackled it the same way as that "elected" guy did as I described above, but that would just be undemocratic and manipulative.

That is why reform is needed.

What a downright stupid and childish report. If you're not going to name the paper, don't bother even reporting it.

Boo hoo hoo, his feelings are hurt. Grow up!!

Slightly worrying that the former head of the army is so thin skinned!

Any neighboring armies should put their weapons away and grab their dictionaries.

I await a computer back in retaliation North Korean style....god knows what they would find. 500 Facebook passwords and a login for Thai playboy probably.

"...made him angry, and thus reduce his demeanour as the prime minister."

An understatement.

Not even a civil human:

"...this casts me in a negative light"

The Paper does this?

Be careful, posting that or, the Junta is gonna ban our favorite videostreamer....

Tell u what, he's lucky he didn't get it thrown straight back at him.between that and his head stroking malarky, the guy is a national embarrassment.

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Maybe Prayut should tackle it this way. Newspapers considered “critical” of the government can have their advertisements pulled, first by the advertising agency owned by Prayut family members, then later by state enterprises under government control. Toeing the government line could bring financial rewards. “Friendly” newspapers could be pleasantly surprised by the increased advertisements from business concerns related to the country’s CEO’s empire. It worked for thaksin.

Besides, I thought bad military Junta's just shut down newspapers that complain. I thought that bad military Juntas arrested the staff of these papers? Nope? None of that here. What does this ex military PM do?Lodges a complaint with the press association. How refreshingly democratic.

And for him to complain it seems that freedom of the press is alive and well.

The doom and gloomers must hate this.

Actually, it seems that the junta control of the press is not focused on exclusion of news stories, but more on the inclusion of nonsensical propaganda pieces, usually trumpeting the “understanding” of foreign governments for the junta’s repression.

Fair enough.

Good to see him follow "due process" though, through democratic channels.

He could have tackled it the same way as that "elected" guy did as I described above, but that would just be undemocratic and manipulative.

That is why reform is needed.

Different paper and different translation, seems a touch more evil and non democratic:

“I have been patient for so long already, what!..are they crazy complaining at everyone? What good does it bring? I don’t want to read [this stuff]. It makes me angry and lose my manners and leadership image. This time I will seriously shut them down. That’s what martial law is meant for. I’ll use Article 44 [of the 2014 Interim Charter] creatively. I have never put anyone in jail for this,” said Prayut.

Article 44 of the 2014 Interim Charter states that the head of the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has unprecedented powers to prevent and suppress any apparent threats to national security.

http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/4635

What an immature little sook this P.M is. He is demonstrating everyday that he is not up to the job and should run home to mummy for a hug.

"...made him angry, and thus reduce his demeanour as the prime minister."

An understatement.

Not even a civil human:

"...this casts me in a negative light"

The Paper does this?

Yea.... right.... So much for taking personal responsibility. Blame temper tantrums on "others." i.e. it's not my fault.... the paper MADE me mad... lol oh my....

Years ago we could hear " the Devil made me do it." lol

"I don't know what's wrong with the paper. It criticises everyone who becomes prime minister. What's good about this kind of practice?"

Two points to note;

1) It would seem this unnamed paper is fair and reasonable, as all the PM's I have observed in the past decade or so really need some criticism or a reality check.

2) This is not the first PM in that time to complain about being criticised, but if things go the way they do with this bloke, this is the first one to not have enough of a thick skin to ignore the barbs of the press and get on with the job at hand.

You mean not of enough of a thick skin like Thaksin who manipulated and threatened the press who wrote anything negative about him, including the sacking of Veera Pratheepchaikul, the editor of the Bangkok Post at the time. Veera who was in a position to quote more than the rest of us wrote that government interference in the press was worse under Thaksin than any previous military government.

Agree thou that Khun Prayuth should just not read the bloody thing when it is presented to him and just get on with the admirable job he is undertaking. At least he has the strength to admit to his fault that it gets him going. After all he has been raised as an Army man not a politician.

"...made him angry, and thus reduce his demeanour as the prime minister."

An understatement.

Not even a civil human:

"...this casts me in a negative light"

The Paper does this?

How the hell can the world take this guy seriously when this is how he acts, and he complains about a news paper that criticizes him,

It has been said before : If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Nobody forced you to be the chef.

Well, events kind of did.

You better have thicker skin than that if you want to be boss....this isn't the army where everyone has to be nice to you. Put on your big boy pants.

It has been said before : If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Nobody forced you to be the chef.

Nobody voted for him to be the chef either

Respect. The man has an agenda. He wants to be a Dictator, elected as such, come next "Election.". Beforehand, any sort of opposition has to be stifled.

Concerns for the Farang? Not really. Except there will only be 2 visa's available left: Tourist visa / retirement visa. All other "acrobatic" visa's in between will not be available anymore.

Cheers.

bs

"...made him angry, and thus reduce his demeanour as the prime minister."

An understatement.

Not even a civil human:

"...this casts me in a negative light"

The Paper does this?

Yea.... right.... So much for taking personal responsibility. Blame temper tantrums on "others." i.e. it's not my fault.... the paper MADE me mad... lol oh my....

Years ago we could hear " the Devil made me do it." lol

Indeed, our dear PM and former General can't save face anymore, because the world sees EVERYTHING worldwide in social media....

It has been said before : If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Nobody forced you to be the chef.

Well, events kind of did.

How ironic ! An anti-junta dribbler making a comment like that, "Nobody forced you to be the chef."..............when in fact it was the catastrophic situation created by the Shins that did just that.

Quite possibly the funniest thing I have read on TVF all year ! Keep them coming, please..................

The point he may be making is that some journalists see their role as wall-to-wall criticism. Some journalists make an art of negativity and do not mention/stress/point out the positive things. Constructive criticism is obviously important but destructive criticism is a bit weary. I think it may have something to do with journalists trying to be noticed, trying to be more radical than their colleagues, trying to be holier than thou or simply trying too hard. Perhaps they're trying to build a career in which case truth, honesty and intelligence takes a back seat. I have some sympathy for dear leader.

You may or may not have noticed but that goes for many posters on here, in fact more so in some cases.

One has to laugh at the somersaults the haters of democracy have had to propel themselves.These guys were been first in line to back the massive and highly critical press coverage of the last democratically elected government.Now they are agonising about the mild comments of an essentially government friendly press, in any even curtailed by laws preventing reasonable/constructive criticism.The problem is of course not really with the press or journalists' "negativity" but something quite different.What is comical in this case is that these guys don't have the sophistication or wit to disguise their prejudices, so that their intellectual dishonesty is childishly transparent

Nixon didn't like the Washington Post much either. I was too lazy to read all the posts, someone beat me to Harry Truman.... maybe "don't do in the dark what you don't want to come out in the light"?

Edited December 26, 201411 yr by Emster23

The point he may be making is that some journalists see their role as wall-to-wall criticism. Some journalists make an art of negativity and do not mention/stress/point out the positive things. Constructive criticism is obviously important but destructive criticism is a bit weary. I think it may have something to do with journalists trying to be noticed, trying to be more radical than their colleagues, trying to be holier than thou or simply trying too hard. Perhaps they're trying to build a career in which case truth, honesty and intelligence takes a back seat. I have some sympathy for dear leader.

You may or may not have noticed but that goes for many posters on here, in fact more so in some cases.

One has to laugh at the somersaults the haters of democracy have had to propel themselves.These guys were been first in line to back the massive and highly critical press coverage of the last democratically elected government.Now they are agonising about the mild comments of an essentially government friendly press, in any even curtailed by laws preventing reasonable/constructive criticism.The problem is of course not really with the press or journalists' "negativity" but something quite different.What is comical in this case is that these guys don't have the sophistication or wit to disguise their prejudices, so that their intellectual dishonesty is childishly transparent

......................"These guys were been first in line to back the massive and highly critical press coverage of the last democratically elected government.Now they are agonising about the mild comments of an essentially government friendly press, in any even curtailed by laws preventing reasonable/constructive criticism"......................

Interesting comment jayboy, but do you mind telling me who "These guys" are. Do you mean the Military Junta people, or certain TVF members ?

Also, you say that they were - "mild comments of an essentially government friendly press, in any even curtailed by laws preventing reasonable/constructive criticism".............................

so how does that compare to the situation back in June 2006 when the New York based CPJ, Committee to Protect Journalists published this statement -

"The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Thailand’s caretaker prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s continuing use of criminal defamation charges to silence critical media outlets. The most recent charges, filed on Wednesday, targeted three Thai-language dailies, Matichon, Khao Sod and Daily News."......................

as well as -

“We call upon Thailand’s prime minister to immediately stop his campaign of intimidation and harassment of the media,” said Ann Cooper, CPJ’s executive director. “The use of criminal defamation suits against journalists has a chilling effect on press freedom, and Thaksin’s recent actions seem to indicate that’s exactly what he has in mind.”

Did you protest back in 2006 when your hero Thaksin not only "lambasted" the press but used "criminal defamation charges to silence critical media outlets."...............????????????????

http://cpj.org/2006/06/thailand-acting-prime-minister-files-more-criminal.php

Edited December 26, 201411 yr by mikemac

Cowboys dont cry mr. PM. You choose to be in the position you are in now take it like a man.

" Prayut said the paper made him angry, and thus reduce his demeanor as the prime minister"

ahh it's the papers fault, I get it, Thais always blame everyone else for their 'actions'. No sense of personal responsibility. Can you imagine Nixon saying "it's the papers fault"? man-up can you imagine if the papers were allowed to print the TRUTH? he should console himself that only 20% of the truth gets into the papers

Cowboys dont cry mr. PM. You choose to be in the position you are in now take it like a man.

Did you offer Thaksin the same advice back in 2006 when he waged war against the press for daring to criticize him ?

No, I did not think so....................

What a very rude and unpleasant man Thailand has as it's "leader"

I thought this man was an officer, a gentleman.

He is neither.

"...made him angry, and thus reduce his demeanour as the prime minister."

An understatement.

Not even a civil human:

"...this casts me in a negative light"

The Paper does this?

Looks like this man needs to grow a thicker skin. A real mans skin. One would think that a man who rises to the level of a general and the top dog in the army would have a pretty thick skin already. Apparently not. I might suggest he spend a few months in New York. Or on the battle front. Or anywhere a man can really be allowed to man up, and do what men do, and that is to not allow the tiniest little criticisms to offend them. Water off a ducks back baby. Does the world allow your demeanor to be reduced, or does a man allow his demeanor to be reduced?

Edited December 26, 201411 yr by spidermike007

China's sentiment precisely...