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Published on April 7, 2008

Suddenly, however, MCOT became the talk of the town as nine new directors are set to join the board and the minister overseeing it hinted that he would like to change presidents. He said he was dissatisfied with MCOT's Bt27 million in operating losses in January 2008. Though MCOT president Wasan Paileeklee explained that the operating results were not as appalling as the minister proclaimed, the pressure for Wasan to resign is still in the air. Therefore, I've decided to focus on this issue this week.

I recall when General Surayud Chulanont took office that the post of MCOT president was still vacant. Former MCOT president Mingkwan Sangsuwan resigned along with his board of directors to take responsibility for the airing of a certain programme. At that time, I was deputy prime minister and had a chance to play a part in the selection of a new MCOT president. I remember that we even considered putting Mingkwan back to the post since MCOT under his management reported outstanding operating results, which greatly satisfied stakeholders and stockholders. However, MCOT regulations state that the president cannot hold the post for more than two consecutive terms. Mingkwan happened to have been reappointed to his office after his first term ended. His resignation during his second term meant that his two consecutive terms were over.

The selection process for a new MCOT president took quite a while. In the meantime, the chairman of the board was assigned to the role of caretaker president. And it was not until May 2007 that Wasan Paileeklee assumed the job of MCOT president.

In the beginning of 2007, before MCOT got a full-time president, its operating revenues and profits had dropped substantially. But after Wasan took the post in June, its performance began to improve steadily according to data reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).

The accompanying table shows that operating revenue and profit under Wasan's management appeared to regain momentum. MCOT recorded an increase in operating revenue and profit from the period of June to December of 2007 over the period from January to May 2007 of 33 per cent and 105 per cent (or more than double) respectively. However, operating profits for 2007 overall were not as high as 2006 due to MCOT's poor performance in the first five months. The new management needed time to turn things around and they were able to successfully reactivate the operation within a short period of time, as their performance shows. As a consequence, Wasan has passed the performance evaluation required by the board of directors twice already.

Though the PM's Office minister disclosed losses for January, the official number has yet to be made public, as MCOT has not reported it to the SET. According to Wasan, the reason for January's reduction in income had to do with a very important event in this country. Other channels also reported lower income during this period. Each and every channel willingly devoted airtime to broadcasts about this event and temporarily halted sponsored programmes. This event was, to the greatest extent, worth broadcasting live for public viewing - a worth that cannot be counted in monetary terms. However, I've heard that in February the MCOT's earnings jumped to a very satisfactory level, much higher than those of February last year.

Under such circumstances, I personally do not think it is justified to look at operating profits alone as criteria for dismissing the MCOT president. On the other hand, if the debate is with programme quality and popularity, then programme ratings should be used instead. However, no one has raised this issue. I believe that if a person like Wasan, who has had work experience with broadcast media in truly democratic countries like BBC in the UK, is allowed more time to work with MCOT, there is a good possibility that he could bring it to a higher standard. In addition, being highly regarded for his impartiality by media personalities, Wasan appears to be the right person to turn MCOT into a neutral media source, the kind of media we long for.

Until next Monday.

MR Pridiyathorn Devakula