Jonathan Head, the BBC’s correspondent in Bangkok, made some interesting points about media censorship in Thailand at the FCC last night. The main thrust of his discussion was that the Thai government under Thaksin did not censor the media any more or any less than the current government under Surayud. The difference between the governments, as Jonathan suggested, is that Thaksin and his group were a lot more media savvy than the Council for National Security (CNS). I think this makes sense, as I said in a previous blog post. The CNS is making itself into a villain while elevating Thaksin to the status of a victim.

The current government doesn’t seem to understand the function of the media. Jonathan was exasperated because, as he said, the media want to work with the Thai government, but they can’t. The CNS is clumsy in its approach to media censorship, whereas Thaksin was a lot more subtle. Jonathan said that there is a “Failure to understand the media” on the part of the present government.

Jonathan also raised some interesting points about the monarchy that highlight the difficulties in ever successfully discussing Thailand’s internal status, but I don’t feel like talking about that on the internet.

At the moment we have a situation where Thaksin is gallivanting around the world proclaiming how bad media censorship is. It’s ridiculous. The Thai government is actually helping Thaksin. They may as well invite him back in to run in the next elections, which incidentally should be here by the end of this year, according to Kiattichai Pongpanit, senior editor of the Thai newspaper Khao Sod. The new Constitution should be drafted by July… in theory.

Khun Kiattichai was an interesting character to try and fathom. He said that there was absolutely no censorship of the Thai print media going on at the moment. He said he actually didn’t care what the government or anybody else said. This was an interesting thing to say because Jonathan Head was expressing his frustration with the censorship of the English-language media while reiterating the point that the CNS has not given us its reasons for overthrowing the government in September.

As for the Bangkok bombings, the police are due to give their report in the next few days, as The Nation reported half-an-hour ago on its website:

Army commander and Council for National Security chairman Sonthi Boonyaratglin said Friday police’s conclusion over the bomb attacks on New Year’s Eve would reach the prime minister and himself in the next few days.

I’m not holding my breath for this to really mean anything, but you never know.

Techno’ tags: Coup, Protest, Media censorship, Bangkok bombings, Thailand