Government-initiated media reform will not work as long as the government itself failed to be committed to change, said Varakorn Sarmkoses, a former chairman of the reform committee for Channel 11 appointed by the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration.
"Paranoid that they would no longer have that tool [at their disposal], they halted [the reform process]," revealed Varakorn, who was speaking at a symposium on media reform at Sri Pathum University yesterday.
"Let us not forget that press freedom is not an end in itself but a path toward a free society ... as long as we have no press freedom we will surely become slave to ignorance."
The Nation Group editor-in-chief Suthichai Yoon, one of the panellists, said it was not the job of the government to tell the media to reform, adding that the media reformed themselves "every day" through adaptation to new technologies and social changes.
Suthichai said it was time the public declared its independence from nanny governments and old beliefs. He said the day when a small group of people can dictate what should or should not be broadcast on television was coming to an end with the proliferation online social networks and the Internet, which can quickly spread banned content.
Suthichai said media operating with taxpayers' money should be removed from state control to serve the public better. "Only through freedom can society progress," he said.
He added that a code of conduct for Internet users was needed to regulate the newest frontier of media and communication.
Presenting a differing view, Associate Professor Malee Boonsiriphan, dean of the Mass Communication Faculty at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said there was a need for media organisations to reform themselves.
"We must ask whether the media are really presenting things that people ought to know," she said, adding that media literacy was needed among the public.
"We must enable people at all levels to be able to scrutinise the mass media, but no reform can take place as long as there is still no press freedom."
Chatchai Tawantharong, president of newly established Spring News Internet Television, said the government was still trying to think "on behalf of the people" and was engaging in rampant and unexplained censorship, including the current blocking of his television channel under the emergency decree.
"Spring News is among the 50,000 or so sites blocked. Somehow, someone decided to block it. We called the [Information and Communications Technology] Ministry to inquire and they said the minister gave them the order. Since we can't wait, we are now considering opening a new domain name," Chatchai said.
Echoing the view of other speakers, the editor of the Open website, Sarinee Achavanuntakul, said there would likely be no media reform while the government was blocking 50,000 sites.
"Under the emergency decree, censorship has become rampant," she said, adding that professional media organisations such as the Thai Journalists Association, which co-hosted the symposium, should give the issue priority.
Sarinee also criticised mainstream media for paying too much attention to Twitter and other online social networking media such as Facebook while failing to commit themselves to in-depth investigative journalism, which was something they should be able to do better than citizen reporters.
"Don't be too dazzled by social-networking media. I want you to put your potential into what ordinary citizens cannot do as well."