If you work for a Rupert Murdoch paper, you can criticise everything else but not Rupert Murdoch and his interests. If you work for a Conrad Black paper, you can criticise everything else but not Conrad Black and his interests. If you work for a Vincent Tan paper, you can criticise everything else but not Vincent Tan and his interests. If you work for an NGO-backed "independent" media outlet, you can criticise everything else but not the NGO or its backers. If your paper depends on certain big advertisers for revenue, you can criticise everything else but not the companies advertising. Press freedom is a myth. At the end of the day, that old saying holds true: It's he who pays the piper who calls the tune.

The problem is that, even with full democracy, with free speech and press, the owners still exercise control over the editorial policy of their media. Perhaps some kind of co-operatively owned media with people contributing dues to support it is most likely to be editorially free, but again there are no guarantees of no bias.

I was a member of Co-op Radio in Vancouver, Canada, which broadcast over the AM band, and while it was in theory editorially free, it tended to have a left-wing bias, which suited me fine. The only thing press freedom gives is for there to be many different voices with respective biases and readers. Viewers and listeners would have to judge based on their different respective viewpoints. You aren't likely to get a truly, unbiased view from any single media source.

Charles F Moreira

Bangkok

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Big drug companies are no better than drug pushers

The Canadian HIV/Aids Legal Network joins treatment activists from around the world in condemning this latest cynical ploy by Abbott - a move that puts patents in a developing country, worth little to the company's bottom line, ahead of the lives of people who need medicines but cannot afford the high prices of brand-name drugs. 

The Thai government's issuing of compulsory licences is entirely legal under both Thai law and international trade agreements. And nothing prevents Abbott from continuing to sell its own branded version of the drug in Thailand, while also receiving some compensation in conjunction with this licence having been issued. But greed and narrow-mindedness seem to be the order of the day: Abbott wants to defend patents at any cost, including the deaths of sick people.

Richard Elliott

Canadian HIV/Aids Legal Network

Ottawa

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US Special Forces are needed in the South now

After four years it is quite apparent that the Thai army is ineffective in the South. Time after time we read and hear of atrocities being committed with no one taken into custody or killed - even though the Army knows the villagers who, if not responsible, know who is doing these things.

It is about time the Thais followed the example of the Philippines and requested help from the US Special Forces, who are trained in just this sort of warfare. Even a one-legged blind man knows the insurgents are being trained in Malaysia and supplied with arms from Malaysia.

Not to realise that is to bury your head in the sand. Get a lot of body bags ready. Many more civilians will die and the insurgents will get bolder when they realise that they can strike anywhere with impunity.

David

Ubon Ratchathani

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Time to bring in the British SAS and the Gurkhas

The evil massacre of innocent people in Wednesday's minibus incident shows there are no limits to what the extremists will do in order to squeeze the Thai government to grant independence for these troubled provinces. It's the classic way of terrorists, negotiating over the table on the one hand, and on the other, using an armed wing to mount ever increasing atrocities to improve their bargaining position.

And despite every tactic used by the government the situation goes from bad to worse. It's evident that the Thai security forces cannot or will not confront these armed extremists.

In the 1940s the British in Malaysia fought in the jungles against this type of enemy, using the Special Air Services (SAS) and their feared Nepalese Gurkha battalions with considerable success, forcing a Chinese-backed communist underground army several thousand strong to surrender.

If winning is the desire of the Thai government and it can somehow find a face-saving solution to having foreign troops on its soil - "joint training exercises" is the usual expression - then this would stand an excellent chance of crushing the insurgents into submission while granting some limited form of autonomy to the populace. It may also be something the British government could agree to, as they are not without fault over their history in the area.

David Harrison

Bangkok

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Strict curfew and restrictions the only answer down South

The news about Wednesday's massacre in Yala was blood-curdling. We are faced with terrorist acts of ethnic cleansing, undertaken by groups of young, murderous radicals.

Long-term we'll have to find a way to live together in harmony, but in the face of daily atrocities we must accept some tough action now. My suggestion would be to severely restrict the freedom of movement of all locals, impose curfews and set up police and military checkpoints every few kilometres on main roads. Install surveillance cameras everywhere, strictly restrict parking to fenced-off, designated areas and so on. Most of the Thai army should be stationed in the South, but not in their camps. Instead they should be patrolling and flooding all accessible areas. Unemployed young males should be drafted into an army work programme for up to three years.

All this is against liberal, democratic principles, but we are under attack by a murderous killing campaign of terrorist ethnic cleansers and we have to fight with all our force to bring those evil elements down for good.

Francis Kim 

Bangkok

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Thanks to the government for curing my degeneracy

My insincere thanks to the Thai Ministry of Communications for banning access to websites that would further my delinquency. I'm a fifty-something stay-at-home so-'n'-so and I can't be trusted to find appropriate cheap thrills on my own.  So it's good to know there's an office in the esteemed ministry where officials can huddle around a computer for eight hours per day to peruse decadent sites on the Internet - in order to put girlie sites off-limits to me.

The ministry's in-depth research reflects the upstanding moral turpitude that is evident throughout Thailand. I also appreciate that the ministry sees fit to blur out cigarettes on videos, yet allows me to see massacres and disembowelments.  If I were to see a lit cigarette on screen, I might feel compelled to rush to the nearest 7-Eleven to buy a pack.

Ken Albertsen

Chiang Rai

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Nature will have its revenge in the end

I have been to Chiang Mai many times and seen forest fires on countless occasions and in countless places. At Doi Inthanon National Park a common sight is visitors parking their cars on top of the mountain with engines running for the sake of air conditioning. At that altitude the air is usually fresh and cool - which apparently doesn't matter much to these people.

In a country where environmental awareness is so alarmingly poor, the current smog syndrome in the North can hardly be seen as a surprise.

It is easy to predict that this is only the beginning of more serious consequences through people's ignorance and appalling lack of responsible behaviour. It is so obvious all over the Kingdom. Burn the forests, pollute the rivers, build more tourist resorts on islands like Koh Chang, drive your car always at full throttle ...

Well, Nature bites back. And it hurts !

J Pein

Bangkok

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Northern authorities must get their act together soon

Why is the government going to wait a week before it declares a state of environmental emergency in the North? The pollution gets worse every day. At night, I can stand on my balcony, which faces Doi Suthep, and see fires raging. The government needs to act now.

Karen Wenman

Chiang Mai

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Sky's the limit when it comes to incompetence

Thai International's commerce department has asked THAI's board to sell its four brand-new A340-500 Airbus passenger jets. How brand-new are they? Well, one hasn't even been delivered yet. THAI VP (Commerce) Wallop Bhukkanasut says that the four-engined planes consume a lot of fuel and offer limited seating capacity - but surely the board knew that when they placed the order. How competent is a board that places such a large, expensive order without ensuring that it's the best choice. Finance Minister Dr Chalongphob should launch an inquiry to determine who should be held liable for this gross error.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok