K-water TV report cut for safety

He said dropping the report was a precaution because the news item remained unclear and could lead to lawsuits.

Meanwhile a K-water executive, flying directly from South Korea, would clarify this afternoon about the company’s financial status following concern over its capacity to run two of the government's mega-water projects, worth a total of Bt160 billion. 

Channel 5’s General Chatchai explained that the 6pm programme’s airing of the news report was suddenly cut off by commercials. It returned only after the report ended, prompting criticism on the Internet and social networks. Viewers suspected K-water was backed by some influential persons and the report criticising it might have been cut by following an outsider’s intervention.

Chatchai insisted the news editor decided to suspend it on-air, saying there was no intervention by any other individual. He said he learned about this suspension at 8pm that day.

 

‘NO INTERFERENCE’

“I confirm 100 per cent that there was no intervention or order. I talked with the editor for the programme and the editor admitted a mistake of hurriedly publishing the report when they should have checked it first. I instructed the editor to take this as a lesson to prevent future mistakes. 

“The Channel 5 news should be accurate and credible,” he said,adding that Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha later instructed the station to make sure news presentations were credible.

“It was fortunate that we suspended it in time,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Office of the National Water and Flood Management Policy acting chief Supoj Tovichakchaikul yesterday defended K-water, saying it was qualified for the government's mega-water projects. He said K-water was a state enterprise with the South Korean government holding a 100 per cent stake. The South Korean Embassy certified its qualification. 

Supoj said firms eligible to join the bidding had to have 10 years’ experience in construction, worth at least Bt30 billion. K-water had handled construction worth 682.8 billion, was ranked at A1 by Moody's Investors and at A level by Standard and Poor's. It had Bt650 billion in capital and earned Bt176 billion, he said. Supoj said he was consulting a legal team about what to do next about the TV programme.

This move followed a previous comment by Hyung Cheol Yum from the Federation for Environmental Movements that K-water was under the scrutiny of the South Korean National Audit and Prosecution agency and did not have the experience to operate a mega-project of this complexity. 

As a picture of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra visiting K-water went viral, leading to criticism K-water had influential help to get the job, Supoj said the bidders had to go through procedures and selection based on ideas and works, not politics.