Study finds few investigative reports on TV
ONLY a combined six hours and five minutes - altogether 13 stories broadcast by seven TV stations - could be regarded as "investigative reports, the Media Monitor project has said. Of TV stations assessed in a study from August 22-September 22 last year,
The favourite topic for investigative reports on television news was corruption and abuse of power, followed by conflict over resource utilisation, human rights and ethics violation, according to project director Uajit Wirojtrairat. There was also a story on cultural conflict in a television investigation report, she said.
But the pattern of “investigative reports” was mostly just narrative or simply explanations, she said.
Four stories were found making deep analysis to see the root causes of problem, he said. Only two stories were reported in disclosure style, she said. Only one story in the study could lead to the wrongdoer in the controversy, she added.
The Media Monitor did the study in collaboration with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission to review media freedom, ethics and quality of media reports.
Factors which determine the quality of investigative reports in television were political restriction, business success and a lack of resources, she said.
Nation Group Editor Thepchai Yong commented that the report was a good initiative but there were many factors that could determine the success of investigative reports. Investigative reports in Thai media mostly depend on the experience of the journalists involved.
Investigative reports should not only focus on political stories but also social aspects. The challenge was how to build social awareness to encourage quality investigative reports in the country, he said.
Media organisations might need to some mechanism to support investigative reports, he said.
“Investigative reports require teamwork so media organisations should give importance to making good human resources for this kind of work,” said Thepchai, who is also chairman of the Thai Broadcasting Journalists Association.
Thailand Information Centre for Civil Rights and Investigative journalism director Suchada Jakpisut said the study was done after the coup, so it was understandable to see few investigative reports as all media was censored or asked to self-censor, she said.
