Peace TV starts broadcasting via YouTube
PEACE TV began broadcasting on YouTube yesterday after the red-shirt satellite-TV station had its broadcast licence revoked recently by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.
Red-shirt co-leader Weng Tojirakarn, a host at Peace TV, said there would be less viewers on the Internet but the station expected its older, loyal fans to eventually learn how to watch its programmes on the Net.
“Our identity is still that of a political TV [station]. They cannot stop us from discussing politics,” Weng said.
“We’re for a genuinely democratic system with His Majesty the King as head of state. I’m using the word ‘genuine’ because there are those who claim to be for democracy while in fact are for dictatorship.”
Weng claimed that the National Council for Peace Order was behind the Peace TV ban – because it feared the station becoming a threat to the military regime.
He warned the NCPO that any attempt to block Peace TV on YouTube would attract further negative foreign attention to its censorship practices.
Peace TV programming has been adjusted to a daily schedule from 9am to midnight to suit the new medium, said Weng, and most programmes remain the same, though the morning news has been replaced by evening news from 7-9pm.
Weng admitted that some viewers aged over 50 may initially not know how to access Peace TV on the Internet but they were expected to eventually learn how – as their children could easily teach them, while Internet access through smartphone was much more accessible and affordable than in the past.
Sombat Boonngam-anong, the Red Sunday Group leader and a host at Peace TV, said the station’s audience on YouTube was a different demographic to those who watched the satellite channel.
“The number of viewers will drop unless Peace TV adjusts its programmes,” said Sombat, adding that YouTube clips should be much shorter than satellite TV programmes.
They should be more like a video clip, no longer than 10 minutes each, and be interactive, he said.
Sombat said he would discuss the merits of continuing his weekly show with Peace TV, which was previously 50 minutes.
Weng said the station would wait for a week or two to assess the length and format of its shows. But the programme of Jatuporn Promphan, the red-shirt co-leader and chairman of the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship, would continue to be two hours long.
Some people have said they would try to access Peace TV even though doing so would be more difficult, while others said it would be more convenient to watch Peace TV on YouTube.
The broadcasting regulator will work closely with the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to monitor Peace TV.
Sombat Leelapata, acting deputy secretary-general of the NBTC, said that if his committee found illegal activities on the online site, the NBTC and the ICT Ministry would consider taking action against the TV operator.
He explained that the NBTC had its own regulations to govern online content, while the ICT Ministry also had related laws including the Computer Crime Act BE 2550 (2007).
In a separate matter yesterday, the broadcasting regulator postponed its decision on whether to take action against two politics-oriented satellite TV channels, 24 TV and Fah Wan Mai, after receiving letters of complaint from consumers. The NBTC secretary-general said his committee wanted to ensure it had sufficient details before making a final decision on these matters.
