Nevertheless, the Cabinet on Tuesday approved the appointment of Peeraphan Prempooti, an adviser to the prime minister, as permanent secretary of the PM's Office, replacing Rongphol Charoenphanthu, who is to be the new Cabinet secretary-general. At the same time, caretaker PM's Office Minister Newin Chidchob was put in charge of the Office of the Permanent Secretary of the PM's Office, which is party to the business conflict with iTV over concession fees and programme content.

iTV was owned by the prime minister's family through Shin Corp until the telecom conglomerate founded by Thaksin was sold in January to Singapore's Temasek Holdings in a complex deal for a tax-free Bt73.3 billion, amid charges of conflict of interest.

Through its ownership of Shin, Temasek inherited a financially ailing iTV, which has been bogged down by a dispute over concession fees, programme content and liability for more than Bt75 billion in overdue payments plus punitive fines.

On May 9, the Central Administrative Court overturned an earlier decision by a 2004 arbitration panel in favour of iTV. That earlier decision had allowed a drastic reduction in the concession fee iTV paid to the state. Shin is set to appeal the decision to the Supreme Administrative Court.

If the ruling is upheld by the higher court, then iTV will revert to paying the original annual concession-fee rate of 44 per cent of revenues or Bt1 billion per year, whichever is greater, to the Office of the Permanent Secretary. Since the arbitration panel ruled in favour of iTV two years ago, the television station has been paying only 6.5 per cent of revenues or a minimum of Bt230 million.

The Central Administrative Court's decision has been welcomed by all democratically minded people and advocates of broadcast-media reform. They see it as the first step towards restoration of broadcast-media freedom, which briefly saw the light of day in the late 1990s before being snuffed out by a group of investors led by Shin. The Office of the Permanent Secretary awarded a 30-year concession to iTV in 1995 as part of pre-Thaksin broadcast-media reforms meant to ensure that broadcast journalists enjoyed unfettered freedom to do their job - to safeguard the public's right to access timely, accurate and truthful news and information.

Replacing Rongphol - who initiated the successful appeal to the Central Administrative Court - with Peeraphan, a trusted friend and former classmate of Thaksin at the Royal Police Academy, is looked on by the public with deep suspicion and not without good reason.

Some critics have even likened Thaksin's intervention as part of an "after-sales service" deal to help Temasek-controlled Shin avoid iTV's potentially ruinous liabilities. What's more, the Constitution forbids a caretaker government from appointing, transferring or firing senior government officials.

Opening up controversy on all fronts at a time when Thaksin is fighting for his political survival is hardly an ingenious rearguard action. No one can say whether Thaksin's strange actions in recent months have been premeditated or are because of mental strain. But the worst of all possible theories is that Thaksin's arrogance of power is getting the better of his usually shrewd judgement, and that would put the Kingdom on a dangerous path.