Hero or not, Sondhi Limthongkul is a creation of Thaksin Shinawatra's owrn making. This is the third in a series on the pair's political face-off.

December 1 , 2005 - Just like Dr Frankenstein, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra only has himself to blame. If Sondhi Limthong-kul is not a national hero as many seem to think he is, he may just be a political “monster” created by the Thai Rak Thai leader in his ruthless efforts to control the Thai media.

From his first day in office, Thaksin has embarked on all kinds of strategies and succeeded in making Thailand slip more than 50 places to the bottom half of the world rankings on media freedom. It started with his empire’s purchase of iTV. Then whispers grew about the government helping various businesses or projects of media organisations friendly towards the government. Advertising money from state coffers also flowed towards those media outlets. Critical ones were left in no doubt that their business would suffer.

In fact, such a strategy was once defended in a popular column of a popular newspaper. The writer wrote something along the lines of - since his organisation didn’t complain while suffering under the Democrats, those who suffered financially under Thaksin shouldn’t complain either.

Then there was the intimidation. First major civil suits were filed by the prime minister’s business empire against Thai Post and activist Supinya Klangnarong. Nation editors and senior journalists of some other organisations were subjected to a controversial banking assets probe by the Anti-Money Laundering Office.

Editors were sacked. Shares of a newspaper were bought by business people with connections to the powers-that-be. And only recently were the take-over attempts of the respectable Matichon newspaper by entertainment tycoon Paiboon Damrongchaitham narrowly deflected by social outrage, largely because the Thai public suspected that the plan was politically motivated.

Despite trying to get close to a few newspapers, Thaksin actually trusted nobody. His idea was to make as many friends as possible - so that when some turned against him he would still have the backup of the others. In spite of that, he did not hesitate to make foes.

“I have never experienced anything like the situation under this government throughout my career,” said Wimolphan Pitata-watchai of Thai Post. “They would send revenue officials to check our tax records or sources of our finances. And when we got advertising money from Thai Airways, the company would then receive an inquiry into who had decided to get involved with us.”

She added that a journalist friend had failed to win a radio programme concession because the station director told him: “You are on the blacklist.”

Of all the media companies, Sondhi’s Manager group has probably experienced both the best and worst of Thaksin. But whatever the prime minister has done, it has moulded Sondhi into something other media tycoons cannot imitate. Some call it “militant journalism”, others simply deem Manager suicidal.

Ironically, the lawsuits against Supinya and the Thai Post did not bring tens of thousands of people to Lumpini Park. In fact, few people were interested. The “Thaksingate” (AMLO) scandal also received lukewarm public attention but thanks to the Administrative Court, the highly questionable probe of journalists’ bank accounts was stopped.

When Sondhi faced Bt2 billion in lawsuits and had his TV projects taken away, he wanted to make sure the whole world knew about it. And he succeeded. For all his domination of the broadcast media, Thaksin failed miserably to stop the anti-government campaign Sondhi launched through his newspaper, its website, and sale of CDs.

Thaksin probably deserves Sondhi. Despite all the questions about his motives, Sondhi has been succeeded where media freedom advocates have failed. He has shown the premier that while freedom has its price, trying to mess with the media may be more costly.