BBC’s Thai transmission towers fall silent as junta talks falter

[webfact]

BBC’s Thai transmission towers fall silent as junta talks falter

 

BANGKOK, March 8 — The BBC World Service has stopped broadcasting from one of its major global transmission stations situated in Thailand, AFP has learned, after talks broke down with a junta riled by its uncensored coverage.

 

Sources with knowledge of the negotiations said the BBC’s Thai-language output impeded discussions about renewing the 20-year lease on the complex, the network’s main shortwave broadcast station for Asia. 

 

The centre’s large red and white transmission towers in Nakhon Sawan 240km north of Bangkok beamed local language news into tightly-controlled countries such as China and North Korea, and into places where many still rely on radio like Pakistan and Afghanistan

 

Full story: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/world/article/bbcs-thai-transmission-towers-fall-silent-as-junta-talks-falter

 

-- malaymail online 2017-03-08
 

[whatawonderfulday]

Not needed anymore anyway. With the Thais fully conversant with social media, VPNs, Google auto translate etc etc they can get the truth anyway.

[Shawn0000]

5 minutes ago, whatawonderfulday said:

Not needed anymore anyway. With the Thais fully conversant with social media, VPNs, Google auto translate etc etc they can get the truth anyway.

 

"The centre’s large red and white transmission towers in Nakhon Sawan 240km north of Bangkok beamed local language news into tightly-controlled countries such as China and North Korea, and into places where many still rely on radio like Pakistan and Afghanistan"

[whatawonderfulday]

5 minutes ago, Shawn0000 said:

 

"The centre’s large red and white transmission towers in Nakhon Sawan 240km north of Bangkok beamed local language news into tightly-controlled countries such as China and North Korea, and into places where many still rely on radio like Pakistan and Afghanistan"

You mean those countries where it so well controlled that their governments block the operating frequency of those BBC broadcasts so no one can get it anyway ? Why do you think the Americans/S Koreans have immense speaker systems along the DMZ ?

[jonclark]

Well it just looks like the BBC will have to move to another SE Asian country and transmit from there. Hardly an overly difficult task. Those foreigners will just broadcast into Thailand as opposed to out of Thailand. Then the Junta will have no control or say whatsoever over what they broadcast although in all likelihood they will freely spend huge amounts of taxpayers money trying to block the uncensored truth. 

[heybruce]

9 minutes ago, whatawonderfulday said:

You mean those countries where it so well controlled that their governments block the operating frequency of those BBC broadcasts so no one can get it anyway ? Why do you think the Americans/S Koreans have immense speaker systems along the DMZ ?

Pakistan and Afghanistan "well controlled"?  Do you think these governments have the financial and technical means to jam radio signals across thousands of kilometers of border and millions of square kilometers of territory?  Please tell us more.

 

Thailand wants to censor BBC news.  The BBC won't agree.  The towers will be moved, Thailand will lose out on the money paid and the country's reputation will suffer another blow.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Sorrowful...

 

This is not what most of the Thais who were in the streets of BKK signed up for.

 

Edited March 8, 2017 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[worgeordie]

The Government must not have heard of that saying, Keep your enemies closer,

so the BBC will just move to another Country,and broadcast the truths that the  

current Government does not like,and will have no control over.

Regards Worgeordie

[AGareth2]

7 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Sorrowful...

 

This is not what most of the Thais who were in the streets of BKK signed up for.

 

don't know

probably signed up for planet Thailand

[tukkytuktuk]

Not sure what to be sad about the end of BBC world news broadcast from Thailand and the issues of freedom of speech. Or the beginning of the end of radio. The radio was a part of my growing up and now no one listens to it much. Two 'What a shame' stories in one.

[strikingsunset]

What - nobody listens to the radio much!!! Google the quarterly rajar figures - radio listening is near an all time high at 98 per cent in the UK by their research - I listen to the radio almost all the waking time -a vital source of intellectual stimulation IMHO


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[Shawn0000]

3 minutes ago, tukkytuktuk said:

Not sure what to be sad about the end of BBC world news broadcast from Thailand and the issues of freedom of speech. Or the beginning of the end of radio. The radio was a part of my growing up and now no one listens to it much. Two 'What a shame' stories in one.

 

 

Not sure that's true, in the UK 48.7 million people listen to the radio at least every week and with an average of 21.5 hours per week, that is 90% of people aged over 15, and last year regular listeners were up on the previous year by almost half a million.

[the guest]

BBC is fossil from the past, and biased. I won't be losing too much sleep that the BBC is no longer around.

[funandsuninbangkok]

BBC World Service is a beacon of light in an often dark world. It is a tremendous credit to the British. 

 

The current Thai government should reconsider their position. 

[DaveE13]

40 minutes ago, strikingsunset said:

What - nobody listens to the radio much!!! Google the quarterly rajar figures - radio listening is near an all time high at 98 per cent in the UK by their research - I listen to the radio almost all the waking time -a vital source of intellectual stimulation IMHO


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Talk Sports in the UK is the most listened to sports Radio in the world

[AGareth2]

best to move it

then BBC can broadcast what they like

[DaveE13]

It used to be in hong Kong moved when handed over to China. 

It is funded partly by the British government as others have said cash talks. It will go somewhere else.

[whatawonderfulday]

2 minutes ago, DaveE13 said:

 Talk Sports in the UK is the most listened to sports Radio in the world

Not according to Google it is not and this posts is about foreign language programmes being transmitted in native language from the Thai transmitter.  I very much doubt the Afghans give a tinkers cuss about UK sport so suspect that is(was) not a program transmitted from Thailand.  Maybe wrong of course.  Additionally of course many of the rankings are based on TOA and internet streaming.

[DaveE13]

4 minutes ago, whatawonderfulday said:

Not according to Google it is not and this posts is about foreign language programmes being transmitted in native language from the Thai transmitter.  I very much doubt the Afghans give a tinkers cuss about UK sport so suspect that is(was) not a program transmitted from Thailand.  Maybe wrong of course.  Additionally of course many of the rankings are based on TOA and internet streaming.

I stand corrected. Just checked. 

I was just responding to someone who said no body listens to Radio any more.

The BBC is where a lot of country's will listen to Cricket 

[debate101]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Sorrowful...

 

This is not what most of the Thais who were in the streets of BKK signed up for.

 

Perhaps not, but if they'd taken any sort of interest in the history of their own country, they would have known better. They ate up all of the information available about the flaws with the government and with Thailand's democracy, but most had a huge blind spot regarding other institutions because of their historical amnesia.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

15 minutes ago, debate101 said:

Perhaps not, but if they'd taken any sort of interest in the history of their own country, they would have known better. They ate up all of the information available about the flaws with the government and with Thailand's democracy, but most had a huge blind spot regarding other institutions because of their historical amnesia.

Well, as you probably know, Thais aren't especially big on the political/governance history of their own country.

 

And at least part of the reason for that, presumably, is only a very sanitized version of Thai history is ever taught in their schools, and what is taught, is probably almost bereft of any political content.

 

So, do you call that a "blind spot," or an enforced blackout of knowledge?

 

 

[debate101]

Just now, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Well, as you probably know, Thais aren't especially big on the political/governance history of their own country.

 

And at least part of the reason for that, presumably, is only a very sanitized version of Thai history is ever taught in their schools, and what is taught, is probably almost bereft of any political content.

 

So, do you call that a "blind spot," or an enforced blackout of knowledge?

 

 

Little bit of both. Most countries do the same thing. I didn't really get interested in actual history until I was out of school and read about it on my own. It isn't impossible. The information is out there now.

[daveAustin]

37 minutes ago, the guest said:

BBC is fossil from the past, and biased. I won't be losing too much sleep that the BBC is no longer around.

Hardly chum, it is still the world's preeminent news service and does great work in not only news, but science and nature. And this is only regards its local/regional service as I read it. They would have to stifle all internet radio and the BBC site to stop their news hitting these shores. Saying the BBC is biased is just hip, non-thinking talk. The real issue here is the junta trying to censor news. Methinks you are the fossil if you're all for that. Sad.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Little bit of both. Most countries do the same thing. I didn't really get interested in actual history until I was out of school and read about it on my own. It isn't impossible. The information is out there now.

 

I guess the point is, people don't know...what they don't know.

 

What this whole thread is about is the Thai government getting pissy because of various past content broadcast by BBC Thai and BBC that they don't like.

 

It's sources like BBC Thai that try to tell people the things they don't know and/or the things that entrenched authorities don't want them to know.

 

Edited March 8, 2017 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Briggsy]

The BBC will leave but Jonathan Head must remain here, a hostage. Thailand using North Korea tactics.

[strikingsunset]

Hardly chum, it is still the world's preeminent news service and does great work in not only news, but science and nature. And this is only regards its local/regional service as I read it. They would have to stifle all internet radio and the BBC site to stop their news hitting these shores. Saying the BBC is biased is just hip, non-thinking talk. The real issue here is the junta trying to censor news. Methinks you are the fossil if you're all for that. Sad.

Fine words - the BBC is an awesome source of information and pleasure - I cannot imagine a life without BBC radio 4 - 6 and 2 stations....


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[baboon]

1 hour ago, the guest said:

BBC is fossil from the past, and biased. I won't be losing too much sleep that the BBC is no longer around.

You might find this of interest:

http://www.newstatesman.com/broadcast/2013/08/hard-evidence-how-biased-bbc

[sandemara]

Do the authorities ever consider the contrast between their words and actions from an international perspective - on many levels? Promises about achieving democracy while closing down disagreeable international media agencies may be a hard sell for outsiders - a whole range of prospective investors, tourists, etc - to swallow. A big gamble with the country's future.

[JAG]

2 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Sorrowful...

 

This is not what most of the Thais who were in the streets of BKK signed up for.

 

Perhaps, perhaps not.

Not that they were anything like a majority of the Thais any way.

That's why we ended up with a coup...

And with the BBC moving out.

[JAG]

13 minutes ago, sandemara said:

Do the authorities ever consider the contrast between their words and actions from an international perspective - on many levels? Promises about achieving democracy while closing down disagreeable international media agencies may be a hard sell for outsiders - a whole range of prospective investors, tourists, etc - to swallow. A big gamble with the country's future.

Frankly I doubt it. Until the countries economic fortunes decline to the point where their pockets are hit they won't give a monkeys.

 

And when that does happen ( it will) they will blame it on foreigners.

 

Edited March 8, 2017 by JAG