Ex-TRT exec Sutham is MCOT chairman
Sutham Saengpratoom, one of the 111 former Thai Rak Thai executives who just emerged from a five-year ban from politics, was yesterday named by MCOT's board as its chairman, as expected.
He immediately fills the vacancy created by Sorajak Kasemsuvan’s mid-term resignation to become president of Thai Airways International.
Last month, MCOT’s board appointed both Sutham and Pornsiri Manoharn, former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, as independent directors of this state media enterprise.
Before joining MCOT, Sutham said he had been assigned as a policy coordinator between the Ying-luck Shinawatra administration and MCOT, which oper-ates Modernine TV and a radio network.
He said he would ensure that MCOT supports the government’s policies, particularly those related to building public awareness of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), which will be put in place by 2015.
MCOT must be a key driver in this process, he said, as the government realises that the AEC will have both direct and indirect impacts on people’s lives. MCOT is a channel to disseminate knowledge and make Thais understand what the AEC is all about as well as how to adjust for the coming changes.
It should produce programmes to provide information, news and insight into the ramifications of the AEC via its own media outlets, Sutham said.
As a listed company, MCOT should maintain a good balance between public interest and company profits, he said.
MCOT’s major policies will remain unchanged despite the change in management in the past couple years.
“Given this factor, I believe that MCOT continues to enjoy strong growth,” Sutham said.
