NBTC could face legal action if digital-TV 'beauty contest' fails

Mana Treelayapewat, associate dean of the faculty of communication arts at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the NBTC should conduct research with relevant parties to examine what people really want from digital public television, and to assess the social impacts.
He said civil-society groups and academics were very concerned about the coming beauty contest for public-TV licences, as such an approach would not address the actual needs of the public.
They are particularly worried after the recent decision of the NBTC’s broadcasting committee not to hold a public hearing on the proposed criteria for selecting public-TV licensees, he added.
Civil-society groups and academics are discussing how to deal with the problem, and whether to take legal action against the watchdog over this issue if the qualification requirements and terms of reference in the planned information memorandum (IM) remained unclear.
Mana raised the issue at the “Digital TV ... Thailand’s Turning Point” seminar held yesterday by Chulalongkorn University and the Office of the NBTC.
Pirongrong Ramasoota of the Thai Media Policy Centre at Chulalongkorn University told the forum it was possible that the NBTC planned to reserve 12 public-TV licences for state bodies.
If so, it would create government-service broadcasters, rather than public-service broadcasters, she said.
“However, public interest is a core value of public broadcasting services,” she stressed, adding: “If those public-TV licences are awarded to government agencies without clear criteria in a beauty contest, there will be a problem in this media reform.”
Nuntawat Boramanand, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s law faculty, said the NBTC must ensure the transparency and accountability of a beauty contest if it wanted to draft the conditions and put them into an IM instead of putting them before a public hearing.
Supinya Klangnarong, the NBTC member who serves as chairwoman of the agency’s sub-panel on consumer-rights protection, told the seminar she would put these opinions and recommendations to the weekly board meeting of the NBTC’s broadcasting committee on Monday.
She said she hoped the board would take up the valued opinions and then revise its recent decision.
“To insert conditions, terms of reference and qualification requirements for a beauty contest into the IM may cause a problem. Therefore, the NBTC’s broadcasting panel must hold a public hearing on the proposed criteria for selecting public-TV licensees,” she said.