Seizing T-shirts a sign of paranoia: magazine editor
The editor of the left-wing Same Sky (Fah Diew Kan) magazine has accused the military junta of over-reacting and becoming paranoid after T-shirts at the magazine's booth at Book Expo Thailand were removed by police and banned for possible infringement of
Thanapol Eawsakul, the magazine editor, who has been detained by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) twice without charge since the coup, said the threats came even before the removal of three-types of T-shirt on Sunday.
He said the junta wanted to inspect Same Sky’s booth even before the Book Expo at Queen Sirikit Convention Centre opened on October 15. However, the organiser, the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand, refused to yield to the request for a search of the Same Sky booth.
Thanapol yielded to one demand by the military, exercising its power under martial law, when the NCPO asked him last week to remove a Facebook posting of an interview with a Thammasat University political scientist deemed critical of the junta.
“The Same Sky [journal] is being watched no matter what we do. I’m worried about the sales of our books. It also reflects the paranoia [of the military junta],” Thanapol said yesterday.
He added that the NCPO was well aware that what they did by staging the coup was wrong and were troubled by criticism.
Charun Homtientong, president of the Publishers and Booksellers Association, defended the NCPO, saying the organiser was not being threatened.
“They used a rather polite method and came to talk with me as the organiser,” he said, adding that an organiser has to be careful.
In a related development, about 40 representatives from a media association yesterday submitted a letter to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, urging him to relax regulations so that community radio stations could operate and receive trial operating licences.
The group, led by Pongpat Kaewsrithongthada, filed the petition through the PM’s Office, saying that broadcasts by 5,000 community radio stations had been suspended after the May 22 coup as they did not possess trial operating licences.
Operators had requested licences from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, he said, but there was no clear timeframe when they would receive them.
Some community radio stations had made a large investment in these businesses and feared their investment might be lost. He pleaded with Prayut to relax coup orders by allowing the stations to resume operations and grant them the licences.
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