Senators fear barrier to superboard
It remains to be seen whether the Senate can select the members of the so-called superboard whose role would be to evaluate the performance of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), without risking a legal challenge.
There are 10 candidates for the superboard, of whom five are eventually to be selected for the job. Each is to represent a certain expertise, one of which is a background in consumer protection.
However, on December 18, the Central Administrative Court issued an injunction against the selection process at the request of Wutiporn Diewpanit, who failed to make the cut as a candidate with consumer-protection background. Now some senators are worried about going ahead with appointing the other four members before the issue is sorted out.
Senator Anurak Niyomvet yesterday cited Article 70 of the Frequency Allocation Law, which says there must be one superboard member from each of five backgrounds: radio broadcasting, television broadcasting, telecommunications, promotion of rights and freedoms, and consumer protection. If the Senate appoints only four members, without one from a consumer-protection background, this could attract a legal challenge.
Senator Jittipot Viriyarote said the Senate had to think carefully before making a decision on the matter.
Eight of the 10 candidates yesterday presented their visions to the Senate’s panel assigned to scrutinise their histories and ethical behaviour. All of them vowed that they would act on behalf of Senate to scrutinise NBTC performance. The panel will submit their visions to the full |Senate.
The panel did not interview Prasert Apipunya and Pantasak Chantapanya, both of whom have consumer-protection backgrounds, because of the Wutiporn injunction.
