Director-general Pramote Ratvinij said yesterday he was prepared to call in the Thai Rak Thai members involved to explain the law to them.

Veera Musigapong, Jatuporn Phomphan and Natthawut Sai-kua have said they would resign from the party in order to launch the new cable TV service called PTV, or People's Television.

Pramote warned they could not launch the service as it would be against the law.

He said the PTV was in a similar situation to ASTV, a service of Thai Day Dot Com Company, part of Sondhi Limthongkul's Manager Group.

The operator of ASTV has filed a criminal lawsuit against the PRD, alleging it abused its state powers when it questioned ASTV's legal status.

Pramote said it was not acceptable for the Thai Rak Thai members to launch the service when they clearly knew it was illegal.

"If they still go ahead and air their programmes on PTV, I will tell them to come in and explain themselves," the PRD chief said.

Natthawut said he, Veera and Jatuporn were preparing to resign from Thai Rak Thai and that PTV would not be a voice for the party.

He said he would be ready to meet Pramote if they were called in and welcomed the chance to cooperate with the state.

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation