Pravit Rojanaphruk, reporter for the Nation, has written about the response he got from a senior journalist, famed for his investigative work, when he tried to investigate the reported dismissal of editors at Matichon.

Pravit was invited to attend a seminar entitled ‘Media and Democracy: Media’s Role and Responsibility’ on May 28 at the Senate, organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation along with the Senate and the Thai Journalists' Association (TJA).

One of the speakers, Dr Wolfgang Schulz, Director of the Hans-Bredow Institute of Hamburg University, spoke about a recent incident in Germany in which an editor at a television station had been forced to resign for taking a leftist stance. But the editor was rescued through a public campaign which mustered support even from rightist editors and reporters who felt they should defend the right to freedom of expression, even the right of those who have different opinions from theirs. (See Pravit’s report at the Nation)

Upon hearing that, Pravit was reminded of a news report by Manager Online about Matichon removing its editors due to their ‘red’ stance.

Towards the end of the seminar, Pravit asked another speaker Prasong Lertratanawisute, who was TJA president and also an editor at Matichon, what he thought about the Matichon case compared to what the German professor had said.

Prasong responded to Pravit that the Manager report was not true, and so he had no need to say anything. He questioned Pravit’s motive to have asked about the issue, and asked, ‘and do you trust the Manager?’

If the report was not true, why has Matichon never corrected it or made it clear to the public, asked Pravit?

‘No need to [correct the report],’ Prasong replied, looking discontented with Pravit. He said many newspapers including, for example, Kom Chad Luek, also gave incorrect information in their columns, but they did not bother to have it corrected. It is up to the people to judge who is credible, Prasong said.

Pravit noted that the TJA president seemed unhappy with the questions despite the fact that, ironically, just minutes earlier he himself had told participants in the seminar that the media should be more subject to scrutiny by other groups.

The conversation was cut short by the moderator, leaving Pravit puzzled by the answers of the TJA President.

Pravit checked with his sources about the report. A prominent Bangkok Post reporter who had received international awards confirmed to him that the truth was as had been reported, and this had been confirmed to her by her friends at Matichon. Another senior reporter even said to Pravit that Prasong was making things up, telling such lies before many other fellow members of the media.

Pravit wrote that it was time for Sathien Junthimathorn, one of the sacked editors, to come out and make things clear. However, as he had been informed by some people that at Matichon there was a culture of ‘brothers and sisters’, which was a deep-rooted patronage culture, he was not sure how the truth would ever be told.

After his article was published in Prachatai, Pravit received an email from a lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. The email is published here, with the name withheld by Pravit:

Dear Pravit,

Thank for your article on Prasong's response to your question on Sathien-Chulalak. That's exactly the answer he gave me when I gave a talk at the TJA's Media Freedom day. I raised the question why there was no action from the TJA regarding the Matichon -vs- Sathien-Chulalak issue. Prasong answered me, behind the stage, with an irritated voice: ‘Then you also believe the Manager's report? Phi Chang (Khanchai) and Phi Sathien are very close and been working together for a long time, nothing would destroy their relationship. Lately Sathien was not in charge of the newspaper, someone else was. Matichon only used his name, bla bla bla.’

If Prasong as the TJA chairman and those who run the TJA don't have guts nor credibility, what else could we expect from the media in general. Anyway, your article simply pounded on their integrity. Thanks.

Prachatai's note: Prasong Lertratanawisute was acclaimed by Business Week to be Thailand’s top investigative journalist, and was included in the magazine’s Stars of Asia in 2001. One of his most outstanding works was to expose Thaksin Shinawatra’s concealment of assets in his declaration when he became Prime Minister in 2001, a scandal that almost cost Thaksin his premiership.