What we read, what we watch is determining who we are

On another occasion, while on a public bus, I watched as the driver suddenly stopped the vehicle and told the conductor to run down to fetch a pro-Thaksin Prachatouch newspaper, which is not widely available in Bangkok.

Earlier this month, Prachatouch newspapers accused the Thai Journalists Association (TJA) of being less than honest and ganging up unfairly on Thaksin. On October 7 last year, a Bangkok Post reporter visiting a hospital was asked by an injured PAD protester what side he and the paper were on. And on Monday, PM's Office Minister Satit Wongnongtoey said he would use state-controlled media to counter Thaksin's "air war", in reference to the ousted and convicted former premier's increasingly more frequent phone-ins from abroad.

All these are but some manifestations of the deeply divided media landscape.

These days, you are identified by the papers you read, television channel you view or websites you visit. Space for fair and open debate and argument is shrinking, while more and more media censor the views of readers and viewers that do not fit their political agenda. Foreign correspondents critical of the PAD and the current administration have been roundly accused by pro-PAD media as being merely hired guns paid by Thaksin.

The unabashedly partisan nature of virtually all Thai media may be good in a way, because people can say that what you see is what you get, and very few now can claim to be "impartial" - whatever that notion means.

But when ordinary citizens only read or watch particular newspapers or television channels to simply reinforce their existing political beliefs, what a predicament that poses for dialogue, genuine debate and learning from different points of view?

The politicisation of the media and Thai people is such that it's doubtful as to how many yellow-shirt Thais can still listen to a critical view against the PAD - and not conclude that the person behind the critical remark must have been paid by Thaksin - and vice versa. Or is this simply the triumph of the crude logic that you're either with us or against us?

As the reds and yellows appear no longer wanting to make any sense of one another, people of other colours and political orientation are also being cast aside or treated as irrelevant or even non-existent.

Is this the price to be paid by the deep politicisation of the Thai media? And if so, is it worth it?