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Schulz said public debate was essential to democracy and the media's role in fostering it was crucial. Debate enables people to arrive at the best solutions for their country.

He was speaking at a symposium on media and democracy in crisis, held at the Senate and organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation along with the Senate and Thai Journalists' Association (TJA).

 Schulz said he was sharing the German experience with Thai participants in a time of deep political and media divide. He pointed out that in Germany, right-wing editors would defend any threat against left wing editors, although they might not agree with their political stance, in order to defend freedom of expression.

 TJA president Prasong Lertratanawisute said Thai media was not inclined to accept criticism and there was a need to promote more media monitoring.

He said criticism had been levelled against local media - such as double-standard treatment of political groups, one-sided reports, or a tendency to omit reporting lese majeste cases - and some of it was valid.

 On lese majeste-related news, Prasong said: "The media dare not report it because they have been taught [not to]. It's a deep-rooted culture."

 Looking towards reform, Prasong urged the government to do something about media concentrations in the hands of the government and the military. The Army, he said, has 200 radio frequencies. Also questionable was the existence of 42,000 community radios.

 "We don't know how to handle the issue," he said.

 Thai TV director Thepchai Yong agreed that two politically extreme media organisations had been crucial in directing community feeling. However many strong opinions are now being posted on-line instead of in newspapers or on television.

 Thammasat Law lecturer Kittisak Prokati urged the media to foster a democratic culture, where all parties are treated as equal in debate.

 Chulalongkorn University's media expert Pirongrong Ramasoota said conventional media had proven themselves too "urban-centric and middle-class- centric" at the cost of neglecting news about rural and poor people.

The rural poor are aware of this, she said, and have started to look for alternative media.