Minister Satit questions freedom of expression

Speaking at a conference marking World Press Freedom Day at the Thai Journalists' Association office, Satit said freedom of expression was "overstepping the limits", so thought had to be given to how it should be confined.   

Community radio and television stations were popping up eas¬ily across the country, and many of them were used to voice political propaganda and instigate violence.

"So why do [the media] need freedom?" Satit asked.

Chulalongkorn University political scientist Puangthong Pawakarapan said the red shirts had received different treatment from the media than that received by the yellow shirts. Because the red shirts got less space on the mainstream media, they had to seek their own space, using chan¬nels such as the Internet and com¬munity radio to express their opinion.

She said that since the mainstream media denied the red shirts fair treatment, they denied information being given by this media and created their own "world of fact", resulting in a bigger social rift.  

Chulalongkorn University journalism lecturer Pirongwrong Rammasutra said it was difficult for members of the media to be unbiased because they were ordinary people who, inevitably, had their own political ideologies.

She said one solution was for the media to go beyond political conflicts and ideas and to truthfully report what happened without showing cour¬tesies to either yellow or red shirts.

"Although being unbiased is difficult in practice, the media should at least avoid adding more fuel to the conflict," Pirongwrong said.

At the end of the conference, Thai Journalists' Association president Prasong Lertrattanavisit issued a statement on behalf of the association and six allied organisations urging the government not to interfere with the media, and to refrain from blocking any stream of information, including websites and community radio stations.

Moreover, the association said the government had to be sincere in reforming laws that infringed upon freedom of expression.