16. The First Newspaper

Oct 17, 2004

The consensus among scholars is that American missionaries deserve the credit for introducing the first newspapers to Asian society. A Dr Gutzlaff published a very early newspaper in China, while in Siam it was the inimitable Dr Dan Beach Bradley who pioneered the concept of news reportage and in doing so encouraged a positive regard for the critical evaluation of current events.

In 1844, nine years after he arrived in Bangkok, the American physician and missionary received King Rama III's permission to publish a local newspaper. The Thai-language Nangsue Jodmai Het, The Bangkok Recorder debuted on July 4, America’s Independence Day. Bradley served as editor while the manager was a Dr Caswell, who later became Prince Mongkut’s English tutor.

The Recorder was a single, 23-by-27-centimetre sheet with just 35 subscribers, all but two of whom were of very high standing in society. Initially a monthly publication, it came out on the first Thursday of every month. The price of the paper started out at Bt1 per year, subsequently fell to 25 satang and finally, to drum up interest, was offered free to all government officers and head priests.

The newspaper included features on foreign and trade news, articles about the sciences and medicine and question-and-answer exchanges between the readers and the editor. Local news and stories about Christianity were rare.

Bradley deserves further credit for using some of the earliest transliterations, which served in part to give the Thai language new life. He employed terms like chao phaendin for kings and presidents and helped to bridge many of the gaps between the English and Thai languages. Bradley also created other terms, like look rua for “crew”, rua doen talay for “seagoing steamer” and rua gol fai for “steamship” or “steamboat”, and many other words which are still in use today.

The original Nangsue Jodmai Het, The Bangkok Recorder, the name itself including a translation, lasted only a year, ending abruptly when Bradley’s wife Emilie died in 1845. The doctor then took his three children and his wife’s body back to the United States.

Dr Bradley returned to Bangkok with his new wife Sarah in 1850, resuming his missionary work and relaunching his printing house. He published many local novels in Siamese, including the famous “Niras London” by Mom Rachothai and “Sam Kok” (“The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”) by Chaophraya Phrakhlang. Each had around 200 to 300 copies printed, priced at Bt4 or Bt5.

Bradley had a rival in the publishing business, a fellow American missionary named Dr Smith, who published a set of poetic stories by Siamese writers that sold for just 25 satang. In 1859, Dr Bradley decided to publish an annual English-language newspaper called the Bangkok Calendar, which adopted the name of a defunct daily that had been run by a Dr Chandler from 1847 to 1850. For his part, Chandler re-entered local journalism in 1864 with the Siam Times, the country's first English-language daily newspaper.

Nithinand Yorsaengrat

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