BANGKOK - Once upon a time, Thailand was known to have a free and open press. Not anymore. In the 2005 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, released last month by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and ranking 167 countries, Thailand shows up at a far from flattering 107th place, behind post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia and post-Suharto Indonesia.
As far as the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) is concerned, the issue is clear-cut. "More than anything, or anybody else, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra should take the blame for this dismaying portrayal of Thailand as a country where the press is suddenly under a dark cloud," says SEAPA executive director Roby Alampay. Whenever billionaire tycoon Thaksin, his government, or his family's and friends' companies don't like what the Thai press has to say about them, they tend to sue. Big time.
In early 2005, Thaksin solemnly promised Thai voters that he would support press freedom. Now, at least in Bangkok, there's a perception that his concept of press freedom takes a cue from the former prime minister and resident neo-Confucius of Singapore, the eminent Lee Kwan Yew, who in the mid-1990s successfully sued the International Herald Tribune and Dow Jones, publisher of the late Far Eastern Economic Review. There's a difference though. Lee Kwan Yew sued foreigners who allegedly slandered him. Thaksin and his government go after compatriots.
Full Story: Asia Times Online
No more press freedom in Thailand
No more press freedom in Thailand
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Hermano Lobo
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