Thai media calls on drafting panel to ensure freedom from interference

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FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Media calls on drafting panel to ensure freedom from interference
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Four media organisations have called for the media to be free from political interference, in an open letter to the Constitution Drafting Commission.

In the letter submitted yesterday, the organisations called for an assurance of limitless freedom of expression for the media including speech, writing, printing and advertising, unless reports concern national security.

They also asked the CDC to write a provision to prevent authorities intervening in the media.

They said the charter must prohibit the authorities from ordering a shutdown of media outlets and that news articles must not be censored before published.

Media owners must be Thai and political office holders must not own and hold stock in media organisations or telecommunication businesses, even through a nominee, they said.

In the letter it was also stated that communication and broadcast frequencies must be considered a national communication resource for the public interest. The authority of allocating them must be a state agency and the process must be free and fair without monopoly or dominance.

The letter was signed by the Thailand Journalists Association, the National Press Council of Thailand, the Thai Broadcast Journalist Association (TBJA) and the News Broadcasting Council of Thailand and was submitted through CDC members Thitiphan Chuaboonchai and Pattara Kampitak, also a CDC panel member.

Thitipan said these suggestions would be considered and the media would be able to suggest more opinions during the drafting process.

He said a proposed media self-regulation body written in the rejected charter draft was yet to be considered by the current CDC. But a main point to be discussed would be the responsibility of media professionals and their organisations.

Thepchai Yong, president of TBJA, said any media regulation mechanism must not be so powerful that it becomes a channel to intervene in the media. The mechanism, for example, should not be allowed to give or revoke media licences as that would seriously impact on society.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Media-calls-on-drafting-panel-to-ensure-freedom-fr-30271211.html

-- The Nation 2015-10-20

[noitom]

Free from "interference" in Thailand. Virtually impossible and this Thai press knows it. So why don't they just write the truth? Instead of all this posturing and open lettering?" These Thai open letters are fundamentally preposterous.