Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Headlines, Human Rights, Press Freedom

MEDIA-THAILAND: Community Radio Refuses to Go Silent

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, May 21 2007 (IPS) - They may still be on the margins of the country’s media landscape with their limited reach on the airwaves and small audiences, but Thailand’s community radio stations are refusing to go silent.

The fuss created by three radio stations has helped to bolster a view that these broadcasters have a pivotal role to play in opening the space here for media freedom rather than the traditionally larger, richer and more powerful sections of the mainstream media.

That view was strengthened over the weekend when a group representing 150 community radio stations petitioned the military-appointed government of Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to challenge Bangkok’s nationwide crackdown on radio stations.

On Friday, the Thai government sanctioned security checks on some 3,000 community radio stations after shutting down three community broadcasters the day before. These harsh measures under the guise of ‘’national security” followed a brief interview the three stations had with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from power by the military in the September 2006 putsch.

The interviews Thaksin gave late Wednesday night breached the fortifications the junta and its supporters in the mainstream media had built to prevent Thaksin’s voice and his direct views being heard in Thailand. Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon who was twice elected to power, has been living in London since his ouster. The only media interviews he had given were to select international media organisations, some of which were censored here.

But the community radio stations that dared to go down this broadcasting route have found little support in the mainstream media, particularly the press which enjoys more freedom than the television and radio stations that are shackled by state or military controls. And that, too, even after Thaksin’s comments had included calls for early elections.

‘’The mainstream media still sees community radio stations as a tool of Thaksin’s and are trying to de-legitimise anything linked to the former prime minister,” Ubonrat Siriyuvasak, professor of communication at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said in an interview. ‘’The latest broadcasts have made it clear that community radio offers a channel for Thaksin to get in touch directly with his constituency.”

The disregard for community radio also reveals another bias that runs through the mainstream media. ‘’Community radio stations are part of people’s politics here,” adds Ubonrat. ‘’But people’s politics is not considered part of established, institutional politics and mainstream media share this view.”

Similar muted reactions have followed revelations about the increasing number of websites that have been blocked or targeted for closer scrutiny, including those sympathetic to Thaksin. The first four months since the coup resulted in an ‘’over 500 percent” jump in the Internet sites blocked, revealed Freedom Against Censorship in Thailand (FACT), a media watchdog.

The ministry of information and communication had blocked 13,435 websites by mid-January, a steep rise from the 2,475 sites that had been censored in mid-October, reveals FACT.

By contrast, there was a robust reaction from the mainstream media when the junta issued a warning to the major radio and television stations in January to limit any reference to Thaksin in their news coverage. Stations were told ‘’not to broadcast message or statements of the former prime minister and leaders of the past ruling party.”

In fact, the battle for legitimacy and survival waged by the community radio stations has intensified since the country’s 18th coup. Among the first decrees announced by the coup leaders after taking power on Sep. 19 was to ban some 300 community broadcasting outlets in the country’s northern and north-eastern provinces, an area where Thaksin had a loyal following.

Analysts view Bangkok’s treatment of these radio stations as a disturbing indicator of this South-east Asian country’s political environment since coup leaders had promised to restore democracy and create an open media environment after Thaksin’s ouster. ‘’There seems to be a narrowing effect at a time when there should be a broadening of space for more access to media and for more voices to be heard,” says David Streckfuss, an U.S. academic specialising in Thai political culture.

It confirms that ‘’the urge to authoritarianism is still very powerful here,” he explained in an interview. ‘’The years of authoritarian rule in the past extinguished what might have become a counter discourse in the country.”

Thailand has been ruled by military dictators and unelected leaders for nearly three-fourths of the past 75 years, when it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932. Thaksin’s five-and-a-half year stint as leader was no exception, despite his party winning thumping majorities in two parliamentary elections. He gained notoriety for his increasingly authoritarian style, crushing his critics and applying pressure to silence the media.

Community radio stations were not spared either by Thaksin. Such harsh measures against the alternative media was not lost on press freedom advocates here, since the first community radio station to go on air was during Thaksin’s first year in office, in 2001.

‘’The coup government says they want democracy, but they have ended up as heavy handed or more so than the previous government,” says C.J. Hinke, a Canadian academic and coordinator of the media watchdog FACT. ‘’The government feels insecure, which is evident from the fact that they do not want to permit Thaksin’s presence in the media.”