Give readers the straight facts
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While it may be fair to criticise the possible results of a probe into last year's deaths [during the red-shirt protests], including that of a Japanese cameraman, what is more disturbing is the worrying bias in reporting through damning, sly omi
Your editorial of December 4 once again enumerates the number of civilian deaths at 25 (referring to a single instance), but obfuscates the number of soldiers killed as “several”. The fact that there were five reported uniformed soldiers killed during the whole conflict has not concerned you or led you to question which side was shooting the other. Worse, of the 85 reported killed during the events of last year, 80 were civilian. Yet you continue to suspect, publicly and through insinuation, civilians of causing their own deaths.
The attempt to show the event as an overwhelming civilian issue is not reflected by the facts that civilians were the overwhelming victims. If The Nation were to posit in a future editorial that the type of bullets used to kill civilians were likely stolen from the military by civilians to kill themselves, then I think there will never be a resolution to the country’s divisive politics. Thailand needs neutral journalism to provide facts, even in op-ed columns.
To paraphrase Dan Friday: just the facts, and complete facts, please. We can deduce our own conclusions.
Casper
Bangkok
