An MCOT committee on legal affairs was setting up a fact-finding team even though Raisom had eventually forwarded the money to MCOT. He said MCOT would pursue any wrongdoing in either he civil or criminal court.

"I want to clean up the programmes and make the programming process transparent, so programmes for MCOT will have quality. I want to get rid of underhanded tactics in the network," he said.

The investigation should take three to four months, he said.

An internal examination had already found evidence that Raisom had neglected to pay Bt138 million.

Sorrayuth, through his company, Raisom, entered into a 50-50 profit-sharing deal with MCOT. However, the company allegedly oversold commercials for Sorrayuth's "Kui Kui Khao" news talk show on Modernine TV and failed to pay the profit that it earned from selling the commercials on top of the time agreed with MCOT.

The day after the September 19 military coup, Raisom paid Bt138 million to MCOT.

Pongsak said MCOT has been established for more than 30 years and MCOT's staff are like gold.

"I'm just a gold-testing acid, which will irritate those who are not pure gold," he said.

If any outsiders are deemed to have committed offences, they would be subject to criminal or civil action accordingly, he said. If MCOT insiders are incriminated, they would be dismissed.

Pongsak said the reshuffling of TV programmes at Modernine TV was also aimed at maintaining the commercial airtime rates at a reasonable level.

"That's so that everyone can access MCOT and focus on making quality programmes without having the burden of higher rates for commercials. This will open opportunities for small and medium programme producers with potential."

He compared MCOT to petroleum giant PTT, which earlier played the role of keeping the retail gasoline price at a low level.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation