Published on July 16, 2005

Journalists yesterday cried foul over the government’s new media restrictions banning “terrifying and distorted reports” of incidents during states of emergency.

The Thai Journalists’ Association issued a statement in response to an executive decree by the government after the recent violence in Yala province.

The decree will give Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sweeping powers and provide his officials with the right to bar news releases he considers detrimental to national security.

The association said it considered the decree to be in violation of the Constitution and the public’s right to know the truth.

“We don’t support any law that will terminate freedom of speech, a basic right of the people and the media,” the statement said.

It said the government was attempting to pass laws to counter ongoing turbulence, a move it regarded as undermining national stability. The government declined to provide facts on the decree or the effects it will have on the public, but it did urge public participation in the war against terror.

The new measures call for the ban of all news releases that the government deems will terrify the public or distort the facts during states of emergency, which it said would lead to misunderstandings and undermine national security. The measures will be enforced in a particular area or the entire country.

An editor of the Thai-language newspaper Thai Post said the government had ignored the rights of the people while illegitimately giving itself more power.

“The government is moving in the wrong direction,” said the journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

By implementing the ban on media reports concerning violence in the deep South, the government may be playing into the hands of the terrorists, he said.

“Without the media, local people will tend to believe information provided by the terrorists when they don’t trust what the government says.”

The government has signalled its intention to use an “eye-for-an-eye” strategy to solve the problems in the South, which may in fact worsen the situation, he said.

Pakpoom Pongbhai, an editor of the Thai-language newspaper Matichon, said the decree was unconstitutional because it barred the public from access to the truth, a significant ingredient of national stability.

Without the media, he said, government officials can judge news releases by their own criteria and in some cases hide the fact that the authorities abused the rights of the people, particularly in the deep South.

Senator Sopon Supapong said such media restrictions were only implemented in countries ruled by dictators.

“Hiding the truth will only worsen the situation,” he said.

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