Siangtai Thailand newspaper headline

Siangtai Daily Newspaper, a publication in Southern Thailand, ran a front page headline on Tuesday that read:

Farangsao mao kab!

You don’t have to be advanced in Thai language to know that the headline is telling you that a drunk farang woman was driving her car. Underneath it says that three people died, and beneath that you learn that a father, his daughter and his niece were killed. A tragic story and a powerful headline… until you find out the truth.

Siangtai Thai newspaper photoA bit of background on how some newspapers in Thailand work: All the journalists who are published in Siangtai are paid based on the how many column inches their stories take up. A bigger story means a bigger paycheque.

Thai journalists working for Thai-language publications don’t work to the same ethical code as Thai journalists working for English-language publications in Bangkok. They have a tendency to sensationalise their stories to make them “bigger” and earn more money.

While it is true that the three people were killed in a road accident, the poor farang woman who has been depicted as a drunk driver by the Thai media may not have been drunk at all. The incident occurred in Phuket at about 8 pm on Monday night. An entire family (husband, wife and two girls) was riding on one motorcycle and collided with a Honda Jazz driven by the woman in question.

At the time Siangtai went to press not much was known about the incident. Police had not interviewed any witnesses and basic facts were yet to be ascertained: Were the people on the bike wearing helmets? Did the Jazz have its lights on? Were any of the parties involved drunk? We didn’t know – nobody did.

The “evidence” found at the scene consisted of a full bottle of spirits in the Honda Jazz. Police who arrived on the scene said that the driver of the Jazz did not appear drunk and they could not smell alcohol on her breath. The Thai journalist, however, ignored all of this and made big bucks by blackening the name of a Canadian expat.

It’s poor journalism and it’s downright immoral. Take what you read in the Thai-language press with a big pinch of salt. It’s a shame that Thailand’s media cannot be trusted.

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