PM orders security agencies to examine media intimidation claims
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has ordered an urgent investigation into alleged information operations targeting journalists, stressing that the state must never threaten or harm the media.
Thapanee Eadsrichai, founder of news outlet The Reporters, submitted a formal petition to Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul calling for an investigation into the use of information operations, or IO, to intimidate the media.
The move followed what she described as a fierce online attack by anonymous avatar pages after she questioned the Fourth Army Region commander over the shooting of a Narathiwat MP. The Thai Journalists Association said the campaign appeared to be a coordinated attempt to undermine the credibility of the press.
The prime minister accepted the petition and said he had acknowledged the issue and would move quickly to ensure journalists’ safety. He stressed that physical attacks or intimidation by state officials must never be allowed to occur, adding that, if such acts did take place, they would not represent the government.
He also instructed security agencies at an afternoon meeting to urgently establish the facts surrounding pages linked to the southern border provinces that were accused of using defamatory language and making death threats.
Thapanee added that such operations had targeted not only the media, but also activists and MPs. She warned that the spread of hatred through false information would become a major obstacle to peace-building efforts in the southern border provinces.
She therefore urged the government to swiftly end practices that violate the freedoms of citizens and the media, in order to preserve a safe environment for scrutiny of state power in a democratic system and to help reduce conflict in the region in tangible ways.
