Fah Won Mai TV flays NBTC
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Say broadcast regulators seemed biased, question if their programmes really do dow political division
MANAGEMENT of Fah Won Mai – the pro-Democrat Party TV station – has questioned the fairness of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission in assessing whether the station violated National Council for Peace and Order orders and causing social and political divisions.
Thakerng Somsab, the director of Fah Won Mai (formerly known as Blue Sky), issued a joint statement yesterday with one of the station’s other executives, Vittayen Muttamara, detailing their concerns about a meeting they had with the broadcast regulator on Monday.
The two executives called for fairness, saying the station had been accused of causing public misunderstanding and social division through its programmes on three occasions, thus violating NCPO orders 97/2014 and 103/2014.
They denied the charge.
The executives said that at the meeting on Monday the NBTC representatives were “harsh and angry”, as if they were “biased”.
“Impolite words were used without consideration to equal human dignity,” they said.
They quoted a leading regulator at the meeting, who was not identified, as saying: “What crazy stuff are you doing?” And: “You folks still don’t get it.”
The executives said they were not given a full chance to explain themselves, adding that they were only able to argue against one of the three incidents of breaching NCPO orders.
They said that a regulator at the meeting told them that even something truthful could not be broadcast if it caused political division and it was explained to them that this was the policy of the NCPO.
They then cited NCPO leader and Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha as saying in an interview on Tuesday that he had never forbidden the media from presenting anything as long as it was factual.
“Fah Won Mai is thus concerned that the regulators may have inaccurately understood the word ‘reconciliation’ from what the PM and the head of the NCPO understands,” the executives said.
They insisted however that staff at the station were willing to improve and adjust content that may be inappropriate – and warn programme hosts to be more careful and less sarcastic.
“However, the station does not think it has reached the point where misunderstandings were caused to the public … or that [it] deserves severe punishment.”
The executives added that the station had always been cooperative with the NBTC.
Red-shirt station Peace TV had its licence revoked by the NBTC for allegedly sowing political division and was pulled off air on Thursday. Bosses of the station have vowed to fight the move – and get its information out via other means.
In a related development, red-shirt United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) chairman and Peace TV co-host Jatuporn Promphan said the station will lodge a petition at the Administrative Court and submit a letter of complaint to the United Nations for being pulled off-air by the NBTC.
The station will also petition the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Office of the Ombudsman and sue the NBTC, which shutdown the station on Thursday. It accused the NBTC of libel and of dishonestly carrying out its duty.
He said the station would continue to disseminate its content, albeit through social media platforms. Facebook and YouTube will be used while all the one hundred plus staff will be kept on.
The red-shirt co-leader said he would not abandon the staff, as they are like soldiers who will never be abandoned in the battlefield.
