Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is concerned about the professtional ethics of some news media, which he feels lack proper discretion on news selection
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BANGKOK – Government spokesman Maj Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd told reporters that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is concerned about the professtional ethics of some news media, which he feels lack proper discretion on news selection.
Maj Gen Sansern said the Prime Minister wanted the media to present news items which help readers improve their quality of life or motivate self-development.
Stating that the Prime Minister is concerned particularly about the media’s lack professional ethics and allowing themselves to be used by politicians and some groups of propagandists with a hidden political agenda.
“Misinformation spread by these people has caused an unfavourable image of the country in the eyes of the world community, which does not know the real situation in Thailand.”
Instead of the reporters allowing themselves to be a tool of these people to damage the country, the media should uplift their standards and reform themselves.
Maj Gen Sansern said the media should not present news in a way to guide people into believing others’ opinions without true understanding.
For example, some media had criticised the draft constitution by picking up only certain points, and overlooked its main intention of preventing violence and conflict, such as happened in the past.
The draft constitution was meant to prevent cheats and crooks from taking power and plundering the country’s resources, he said.
Maj Gen Sansern added: “The Prime Minister often says in cabinet meetings that the government does not want to hold on to power, but wants to exercise its power to safeguard the country for the younger generations in the future.”
In September 2015, senior newspaper reporter and columnist Pravit Rojanaphruk was called in for an “attitude adjustment”, a detention program the military government has used to haul in hundreds of dissenters for interrogation since the coup.
Pravit, a former Chevening scholar at the Oxford University and a Reuters fellow, has been a prominent champion of freedom of expression. He has not only spoken out against the military leaders who took power in a coup last year, but was also critical of the previous elected government.
Pravit spent a week in jail last year after being summoned by the national council for peace and order, the military leadership that rules Thailand.