Media organisations: Media control bill must be aborted
In one of the biggest gatherings of media organisations since the 2014 coup, 30 media organisations Sunday issued a joint statement showing stance against the controversial media regulation bill, calling on the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) to review the draft and threatening to step up opposition measure until their opinion was heeded.
At the Thai Journalists Associations headquarters, scores of media practitioners gathered to discuss over the controversial media regulation bill pushed by the media reform committee and would enter the NRSA’s meeting Monday before being forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration.
After a two-hour consulting, Thepchai Yong, president of the Confederation of Thai Journalists, represented the organisations to read the joint statement.
The statement denounced the embattled bill as restricting press freedom rather than protecting it by opening way for state authority to interfere with the media affairs through the so-called professional media council.
[Why media regulation bill is so dangerous]
Besides having the direct impact on the press, such practice would also limit the public’s freedom of expression and access of information, the statement read.
The organisations called on the NRSA to drop the bill and review the necessity of such legislation. If not, they threatened to step up their measure against the bill and they insisted the media had been developing the system to self-regulation to ensure media responsibility and to meet with the public’s changing demand.
