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Published on November 7, 2007

They did not paint their naked bodies with slogans or drape themselves in tiger skins. Instead of arming themselves with Molotov cocktails, they held tall cups of decaf soya latte and picket signs that read "On Strike". They were members of the Writers Guild of America East on a picket line in front of the Rockefeller Centre. Their chants of "No money? No downloads. No downloads? No peace!" were drowned by New York City traffic.

It was their first strike in 19 years, having failed to negotiate a royalties deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on payment for work in new media formats such as DVD and the Internet.

What is remarkable is that the union can mobilise 12,000 members to stop work. That would never happen in Thailand.

First off, we don't even have a union for journalists, which is ironic. How can society's "watchdog" - the Fourth Estate - not have any protection from the meddling hands of press barons?

Can they not rise up against the tyranny of top hat-wearing fat cats?

Perhaps it has to do with the alternatives these news media professionals have, said Lae Dilokvid-hayarat, associate professor of labour studies at Chulalongkorn University. With lower-than-average wages, media pros often moonlight for extra income.

And that will - sooner or later, and in varying degrees - damage the quality of the news information we provide. We are limited by time and space. And busy media executives had better read veteran CEO Robert Townsend's 37 year-old New York Times best seller "Up the Organisation: How to Stop the Organisation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits".

Lae said it was time for journalists to "liberate" and "unchain" themselves to fully realise their duty to protect rights and freedom. But that rests on a hefty assumption that all newsmen are noble.

Then again, look at the havoc wreaked by the Writers Guild of America strike.

"They call it the toughest time for comedy writing since those three weeks back in the 1990s when Bill Clinton stopped dating," said talk-show host Jay Leno.

Kinan@nationgroup.com

The Nation