Journalists must not be allowed to hide financial dirty laundry
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Re: “Diplomatic test for 2016: avoiding contradiction, inconsistency,” Regional Perspective, January 4.
Kavi Chongkittavorn wrote: “Worse still, the Thai Journalists’ Association listed 18 violations of press freedoms in the last 18 months under the current government.”
Let me make a prediction: 2016 will be a terrible year for the world economy and much of the blame will go to the news media, especially in the US, for hiding or mis-reporting important financial data.
Freedom of the press is absolutely essential to capitalism (legitimate capitalism), because investors cannot invest profitably without honest information.
Investors, by the way, include everything from the poorest households to the largest international firms, because we all invest in one way or another.
Please do not let Thai journalists hide the financial “dirty laundry” of other countries, since that simply encourages hiding it at home also, along with other things.
The bottom line is that everything is financial and capitalist in one way or another.
Guy Baker
