• 
• 

He said everything went according to schedule following his speech in Paris 24 hours before he arrived in Bangkok. Along the way he managed to stop in Singapore and give a morning talk on Asean leadership. Then he took a noon flight for Bangkok. "I got to Suvarnabhumi on time but I was stuck in traffic near here for the whole time," he said before he started his speech as part of the annual lecture series to honor Issara Amantakula, the well-rounded Thai journalist, author, short-story writer and editor. Issara was a Muslim journalist who stood firm fighting against the dictatorial regime of Field Marshall Sarit Thanarat. He rose to fame because of his versatility and knowledge. His short stories were banned by the government at the time.

Surin cited one of Issara's many short stories, which detailed the diary of a young journalist who died following the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima (Issara was anti-American and condemned the bombing of Hiroshima). In the story, the journalist, who witnessed the atomic bomb, writes in his diary that he must dispatch his eyewitness account to the editor to make sure it comes out the next day. The journalist also urges his wife to wait for his return once "he has filed the whole story". Such dedication to the craft extended beyond his short stories and Surin said he wished to see Thai journalists follow Issara's example as someone who put professionalism before anything else.

Linking Thai media to a broader Southeast Asian context, he said the Thai press is in a good position to influence the quality of regional media. After all, he said Thailand used to have one of the most free presses in the region. He cited the survey done by Freedom House, the New York-based media freedom index, which once ranked the Thai press at 29 of all the 194 countries in its survey.

He also lamented the worsening of press freedom in Thailand. The same index rated Thailand 127th in its latest survey released last month. He said the Thai press has deteriorated over the past seven years and expressed hope that things would improve soon. What he did not say was that the Thai press reached its peak in terms of press freedom under the government led by the Democrat Party (1997-2000). At that time, relations between the media and the government were based on mutual respect. The government did not interfere with the press, unlike the successive Thaksin government and its cronies currently in power.

The Asean chief pointed out that Thailand was the first country in Southeast Asia to have an information law, which gives the public the right to know. The Thai example has received a positive reception in the region. Recently, the Indonesian parliament approved its own information law. For years, Indonesian authorities have studied the Thai information act and improved upon it. Now, Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia are contemplating their own similar laws. He urged the Thai press to pay more attention to transnational issues that affected Asean citizens and to help promote press freedoms and professionalism in Southeast Asia. He said if the Thai press is free, it will expand press freedom in the region.