PM's man says he's right to tackle iTV
Peeraphan Prempooti, the acting Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office, insisted yesterday his appointment was endorsed by the Election Commission before its members were jailed on Tuesday.
"The appointment awaits royal approval, though being the acting permanent secretary, I am capable of handling the iTV [concession fee] issue under the civil protocol," he said, rebutting claims he had no authority to press for an amended settlement from the station. Peeraphan chaired a meeting between iTV and the PM's Office yesterday, and the discussions centred on three issues. The first was whether iTV should resume the original prime-time news content ratio, and whether the PM's Office must be informed of any programme changes in advance. The second was whether iTV must honour the original concession fee, which demands it pay Bt1 billion in the tenth year of operations rather than the Bt230 million iTV now paid annually to the PM's Office. The third was how the parties would solve any future conflicts. No conclusions were reached. Peeraphan said the PM's Office would ask the Council of State and the Attorney General's Office to rule on the backdated concession fee and court-imposed penalty of Bt76 billion. He insisted that the PM's Office has come up with the "right figures".
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