New options for composition of media council

Meanwhile, media organisations maintained their opposition to the proposed media regulatory bill and demanded self-regulation for the industry. 
While insisting that the panel should consist of 13 members, the committee laid out yesterday three initial options in response to media opposition against the previous composition of the council, which calls for four permanent secretaries to sit on it. One option involves cutting the number of permanent secretaries from four to two. The two other vacancies would be reserved instead for a media representative and an expert.
The second option is to reduce the permanent secretary seats to two and increase the number of media representatives from five to seven.
The last option the committee set out yesterday is to maintain all four permanent secretaries but write a provision clause that they would leave once the junta government stepped down. The vacancies would be filled by representatives from other sectors when the elected government takes office.
ACM Kanit Suwannet, head of the media reform committee, said at the press conference yesterday that the committee would discuss the three options today before deciding the final composition of the media professional council.
The controversial council is part of the media regulatory bill that aims to reform the media and boost the industry’s professional ethics. Media organisations nationwide have opposed both the bill and the council, saying they are mechanisms for media control by the state.
Kanit said the three options showed the committee’s sincerity and its desire not to interfere in the media. 
He said representatives from the state were needed in the council because the private and public sectors must work together. It would be inappropriate for either if them to go it alone, the media reformer said. 
“This is like cooking. Various ingredients are needed in order to cook tasty food,” Kanit said.
His deputy, Pol Maj-General Pisit Pao-in, said the committee would reduce the number of state representatives in the council as suggested by many people so it would be acceptable to all. 
Thepchai Yong, president of the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association, said media organisations agreed that the law authorising bodies to promote the media would open ways for state interference in the industry – a practice equating to limiting people’s right to information.
The media is insistent on self-regulation, he said. 
Self-regulation mechanisms have constantly been improved to ensure efficiency and they also allow the public to scrutinise the media through media organisations, in addition to 30 laws that contain mechanisms to regulate the media, he said.
Media nationwide will soon assemble to oppose the media regulatory bill, which they claim is against the referendum-endorsed constitution, he added.