'Little impact on quality' from digital TV launch

This issue was one of the key topics addressed in a SEAPA country report named "Muzzling a Tame Media" delivered yesterday by the non-profit organisation, which promotes press freedom and freedom of expression in Southeast Asian countries.

"We had hoped that digitisation of the Thai TV broadcasting industry could liberalise the Thai media ecosystem. But unfortunately, the birth of 24 digital terrestrial TV channels in April last year was not at the right time, as a coup took place on May 22," SEAPA campaign manager Kulachada Chaipipat told The Nation.

The SEAPA report found that after the junta took control, it set conditions affecting the media. The new digital channels’ reports mainly toed the line of the regime with little or no criticism of its programmes or policies. Occasionally, they would cover a corruption scandal or an investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Their main newscasts at midday or in the evening are mostly bulletins with little effort to analyse or provide a more comprehensive context of an issue for viewers. And like their mainstream counterparts, there is no attempt at investigative journalism.

The few exceptions to this pattern can be witnessed in the new channels run by companies that also own daily newspapers, which have a record of being more critical and probing. These digital channels include those operated by Thai-language Thai Rath daily and English-language The Nation.

As for the new digital entertainment channels, they produce low-budget shows or rerun programmes from channels of their affiliates.

It is expected that not all of the current 24 digital-TV channels will be able to sustain operations until the next round of auctions after their 15-year licences expire.

Those 24 new digital television stations won their licences by auction from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission in late December 2013, and started full-fledged broadcasting in the second half of 2014. These channels are not really new, as all of them previously operated either major print or broadcasting media, or were broadcasting content providers.

They are the first group of broadcasters that actually directly own the licences of the stations they run. The previous analog TV channels operated on long-term concessions from state agencies (including the Army), which owned the stations.

Kulachada added that because of the limited pool of talent and content providers and the audience size, SEAPA did not foresee much more diversity in the programming offered by the digital TV channels.

SEAPA noted that when the junta finally lifted martial law after more than 10 months, it raised anxieties by replacing it with Order No 3/2558, implementing Section 44 of the interim constitution. This gives the junta and its appointed "peacekeeping officers" even more sweeping powers, including barring any news report or suspending any publication these officer deem as threatening to national security or public order.

It remains to be seen how the junta will make use of this new power.