Group calls for ban on betting ads

Thanakorn Komkris, a coordinator for the Yoot Phanan (Stop Gambling) campaign, led 30 people, including children’s rights activists and representatives of parents and families, in submitting an open letter to Sukumol through her adviser Sura Techathat at the ministry. Thanakorn accused five sports dailies of betraying public morals and seducing young people into committing vice by allowing adverts for soccer gambling. He called on the public to boycott publications that carry such adverts.

The ministry should set up a committee to probe sports newspapers for possibly violating the law in advertising soccer gambling websites and to make them stop running the adverts, he said.

The group said a survey found that 37.9 per cent of people under 25, including primary-school students, had downloaded porn videos or “provocative” materials advertised in entertainment magazines.

The group said they reported alleged violation of media law to the Department of Special Investigation but no headway had been made.

It says its latest call for action is out of concern for the fast-approaching Songkran water-throwing festival, when features of celebrities of both sexes in skimpy bathing suits are published widely in magazines. Sura said some aspects of the group’s complaints were out of the ministry’s hands but he would work on them with other agencies, and promised to report back on the progress in resolving the issues.