US media panel slams junta for bashing journos
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The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement yesterday calling for an end to the harassment and censorship of mass media in Thailand.
The move came as banned station Peace TV lodged an appeal for justice with PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday.
Peace TV, a red-shirt satellite station, had its licence revoked by the National Broadcasting and Telecom-munications Commission (NBTC) this week.
“The banning of Peace TV is at direct odds with the government’s stated policy to work toward national reconciliation between competing political groups,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Reconciliation requires the free flow of information and opinions among all political actors, a role the media should be allowed to play without fear or reprisal.”
The statement noted that no specific programme of Peace TV was highlighted by the NBTC as being objectionable.
The CPJ said under Prayut, the NBTC had enforced broad censorship directives, including bans on news that could “create confusion, instigate unrest or deepen divisions.
“Prayut lifted martial law earlier [in April], but his invocation of Article 44 in the military’s interim constitution includes similar media censorship guidelines,” it noted.
In a related development, a team of Peace TV anchorpersons, led by Thanawut Wichaidit, submitted a letter of appeal at Government House yesterday calling on Prayut to show justice. Thanawut said Peace TV had been abiding by all the rules laid down by the NBTC.
“We have to submit a letter to the PM so he can talk to the NBTC to see if the shutting down of Peace TV was done justly or not or whether there was an order from someone. Shutting down Peace TV not only affects the 100 or so staff, but their families and relatives,” Thanawut said.
In a related development, ex-PM General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said sending military officers to the station on Wednesday night was inappropriate. The general was being interviewed at the station at the time.
But Army commander-in-chief General Udomdej Sitabutr, who is also secretary of the National Council for Peace and Order, said the move was within the framework of the law, in order to find out if any law had been breached.
