Jakrapob bombarded with questions

PM's Office Minister Jakrapob Penkair was bombarded with queries from senators yesterday when he acted on the prime minister's behalf in answering questions in the upper house.

Senators posed questions about recent incidents that were seen as being in contempt of the monarchy and the national flag.

These included the Thai flag adorned with ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's name at his Manchester City Football Club stadium in the United Kingdom and the fact that people wearing T-shirts with "offensive messages" were allowed to appear in a programme by state-run NBT television.

The senators, most of them appointed, pointed out that even though the incident concerning the "offensive flag", which is against the National Flag Act, had occurred overseas, the government should have taken action leading to an official apology from those involved.

Jakrapob responded that the government was equally concerned about the matter raised by the senators.

"The government is very worried about this, and we are aware that a slow response on the matter could lead to a political issue," he said.

He said he would consult with the prime minister about finding the culprit behind the offensive flag.

He said the administration had instructed state-run television to prevent images of people wearing "improper attire" to appear on its programmes and that future live broadcasts would be delayed slightly to prevent offensive images from being telecast.

During a recent NBT programme, there was news footage of a Thai man accused of lese majeste for refusing to rise when the royal anthem was played in a cinema. In the footage, the man wore a T-shirt with the message: "Not standing up is not criminal. Having a different point of view is no crime." In a related development, Jakrapob yesterday also responded to a senator's query about his alleged intervention in the state-owned MCOT.

Senator Somchai Sawangkarn said the recent appointments of MCOT board members lacked transparency and that certain appointees were "problematic", as one of them is working for another TV station and another for a company that won a concession from MCOT.

Jakrapob, who oversees the state media, said he had appointed the board members to get first-hand information about what is going on inside MCOT. He said the allegations about "problematic" board members had yet to be proved.

He also said that he was worried about MCOT's competitiveness.