Outvoted NBTC panellists to offer criteria for TV licensing
Two members of the national regulator's broadcasting panel who opposed its decision not to hold a public hearing on its "beauty contest" for allocating digital licences for public-TV channels will propose five key criteria for the licensing procedure.
Last month, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission panel chaired by Natee Sukonrat decided to draft the conditions, terms of reference and criteria for the beauty contest and put them into the information memorandum (IM) instead of holding a public hearing. Commissioners Supinya Klangnarong and Thawatchai Jittrapanun opposed the decision.
Supinya said the licensing process was in the public interest, and therefore a public hearing should be held.
However, outvoted by the majority of the committee on the matter, she and Thawatchai decided to put their five beauty-contest criteria before their colleagues next week and urge a revision of last month’s resolution.
The two commissioners yesterday invited scholars and representatives from civil society to brainstorm at a focus group to draft the criteria for the beauty contest, which is expected to take place this month.
The group came up with five preliminary criteria.
The first concerns organisational structure. Each applicant for the beauty contest must be a public organisation, state agency or consortium that represents relevant parties. This would help guarantee the independence of public TV channels.
The second criterion is related to content and programming that genuinely reflects public needs and interests.
The third is about business plans and sources of funds sufficient to maintain a public TV operator’s independence and self-sufficiency.
The fourth key criterion mentions good governance and transparency of public TV licensees, and the fifth concerns technical support and new technology to ensure universal access to digital TV content whenever needed, such as providing archives.
Supinya said that if the panel accepted these criteria, it would be more able to select the public TV broadcasters with transparency and accountability.
