THAI MEDIA: PRESENT NEWS CAREFULLY
A spokesman for the Royal Thai Government has asked members of the media to present news more carefully in light of the current political tension. Khun Panitan Wattanayagorn, deputy secretary-general to the Prime Minister, added that international communities were monitoring the situation in the Kingdom, and that news presentation could affect the important tourism industry.
I cannot imagine there are too many happy faces at Government House with the headlines on Thailand's two English language dailies. The Bangkok Post's headline "Security forces ready for action" includes news that "Scores of checkpoints were set up in sensitive parts of the city last night .." The Nation's front page includes a map highlighting the "Dangerous areas" in the city ahead of the February 26 ruling on the Thaksin asset seizure court ruling. Their lead story begins "In preparation for the turmoil expected ..."
Surely those international communities will be equally worried hearing officials want to water down the extent of what is or is not happening? And, in my view, there's very little the Government will be able to do to stop news being broadcast around the world in seconds if we do witness similar events to those of April 2009.
I've not seen anything untoward on the streets of Bangkok so far and nothing in the way of the promised additional security measures, but I think it's fair to say it does look like we might be heading for some sort of showdown.
3 comments:
I work near Victory Monument. You would think that would be a major place that the government would want to keep under control this time around.
I walked around there Monday and didn't see any checkpoints. I did see a shady looking guy selling swords and long knives out of a bag but that might just be normal. I will walk around down there tomorrow and check things out again.
Likewise, I work relatively close to the street that's home to the Prime Minister. I've not seen anything.
The area around Victory Monument is one of the "dangerous areas" according to the map on the front page of The Nation today.
Will be interesting to see if your street vendor is still there this time next week. :-)
3 days ago I drove from the east end of Isan to Bangkok and up to Chiang Mai. No sign of extra check points. Actually less than usual.
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