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Published on July 20, 2007

The proposed rating system for television programming will not spell doom for TV dramas, academics told a seminar yesterday.

"The new system will still allow TV dramas to be aired," said Dr Panpimon Lortrakul, director of the Rajanukul Institute and an adviser to the committee developing the rating system.

"Dramas that teach about goodness and ethics can be broadcast during the times most children watch TV," she said.

TV soap operas with scenes of violence and rude language could be on air after 10pm, she told a seminar at Thailand Knowledge Park.

Panpimon said children watched TV for three to five hours a day, and so the content of TV programmes heavily influenced their behaviour, thinking and decisions.

"The TV rating system will ensure that children watch what is appropriate for their development," she added.

She said the new system would not only benefit children, but would also encourage more diversity and better quality of programmes.

Sanpasit Kumpraphan, director of the Centre for the Protection of Children, said most soap operas in the country were far-fetched.

"For example, in many soap operas the hero rapes the heroine but they end up living together happily. In reality, no woman would like a person who raped her," he said.

At another seminar on the new TV rating system, Dr Yongyuth Wongpiromsas of the Mental Health Department clarified that programmes with some scenes of violence, sex and bad language could be aired from 9am to 4pm as well as from 8pm to 5am.

"The draft manual released previously contains wrong information," he said.

The draft had said such programmes could be aired from 9am to 4pm on weekdays and between 8pm and 5am on weekends.

Yongyuth told the seminar - organised by The Nation's sister newspapers Krungthep Turakij and Kom Chad Luek - that he supported the new rating system.

He said it would be useful to children and opened up opportunities for TV producers who could create useful content.

Supon Vichienchai, director and executive of BEC Tero, said he supported the ratings and air-time restrictions. However, he felt the rating guidelines should be detailed so that producers would know how to abide by the rules in practice.

"For example, kissing and French kissing are different," he said.

Yongyuth said a committee developing the regulations manual would decide on such points.

Mayuree Sukyingcharoenwong,

Pakamas Jaichalard

The Nation