Before the embattled TITV could turn into a public television station, or officially the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (TPBS) under the government's Public Relations Department (PRD), one of its scheduled programmes - a taped interview of ousted PM Thaksin Shinnawatra - was banned. Many are now concerned as to how a ‘public' TV station could really exist with such interference.

And on Jan 7, the Central Administrative Court granted an injunction to suspend the Public Relations Department's order issued on Dec 21, 2007 to appoint Sonthiyarn Chuenrutainaitham as acting news director for TITV, following a complaint filed by TITV executives and staff who were affected by the PRD's order.

Atcha Suwan-pakpraek, TITV news director, therefore continues in his position as well as 12 other news editors, while Sonthiyarn still takes the position of deputy director of TITV.

PRD Director General Pramoj Rathawinij said that the PRD was considering whether to appeal the court's injunction, and he was still in charge of overseeing the TITV, but would not be able to give directives through Sonthiyarn. And Sonthiyarn said that under the PRD order he was supposed to take charge of the TV station for only a short period of one month to make preparations for the station to become a ‘public TV' station.

On Jan 3, Prachatai talked with Jom Petchpradab, the TITV reporter who hosted the banned interview, asking him about the censorship, public TV and whether TITV was really pro-Thaksin.

Airing of Thaksin's interview suspended

Jom said the suspension order for Thaksin's interview originally scheduled for the night of Dec 26, 2007 did not directly come from Sonthiyarn or the PRD, but from Atcha Suwan-pakpraek himself. Atcha told Jom he had received a phone call from the PRD Director General asking if the station was going to air the interview. He told Jom to hold the interview back in consideration of the timing. They were in the middle of their fight against interference, and the transition to a ‘public' TV station, a well as the ongoing uncertainty of who was going to form the next government.

Despite his eventual compliance to the suggestion, he argued for broadcasting the tape as scheduled, on the grounds that if it is aired after either side wins in forming government, the interview will surely be controversial anyway.

On Dec 24, one day after the general election, Jom went to Hong Kong using his own money, confident with what he would get as a big piece of news. He thought it was time to bring Thaksin back on screen, after a year of cooperation with the junta and after the people had made their decisions in the polls, and things should start to proceed in the course of democracy.

When he came back and submitted the material to the editorial desk, he met with refusal and disagreement from the team, who rebuked him for his arbitrary act that could possibly affect the entire 800-strong TITV workforce. "They didn't argue about the content [of the interview]. They kind of thought it was OK, but it just couldn't be aired," Jom said. And he quit his job.

Jom accepted the criticism of his arbitrary decision to interview Thaksin without prior consultation and approval from the editorial team, but he said normally he and his team could take their own decisions about work and it had always been acceptable to the others.

"But this is different. The person that we interviewed is deemed ‘uninterviewable'. He has become a forbidden subject for the media, especially TV. There have been examples of defiant journalists who faced an undesirable fate, like the female Channel 5 reporter or other radio hosts. It is less strict with newspapers. But television is deemed to have more impact on the public."

Jom insisted he did it to respond to public sentiment, judging from the results of the election, and it was also a matter of freedom of speech.

After he quit, TITV news staff met with the executives, asking for Jom to be reinstated. TITV director Atcha agreed under the condition that he did another interview with Thaksin, with reference to political developments such as the demands made by Puea Pandin and Chart Thai parties about joining the coalition.

So Jom went to see Thaksin again on Dec 30, and the production was finished for broadcast, but the schedule was interrupted yet again with the death of HRH Princess Galayani Vadhana.

Still, the PRD Director General tried to intervene before the princess's death, arguing that it was not the right timing, it risked being accused of impartiality, etc. And TITV sent him a copy for his preview on his request. After the mournful period is over, the station will air the tape regardless of what the PRD might have to say, Jom said.

Public TV?

Asked about the latest developments on turning TITV into a public TV station, Jom said he could only talk about the first quarter of 2008, as it was the only known future for the station at the moment. The PRD sent Sonthiyarn to oversee the change into a public TV service which involves reducing the number of entertainment programmes and focusing on social broadcasting, issues of public concern, social injustice, and so on. But the TITV staff see that these three months of TITV are without any law, as the Public TV Bill is still pending the King's endorsement. So they think there is no need to rush to change anything, no need for personnel reshuffles and replacements. They are afraid that anything done during this grace period would later be undone by the committee that would be created under the law. So there should not be any changes during this period, and the in-house staff are capable enough to take care of news coverage, he said.

TITV staff are not at ease with the idea for the changes coming from the PRD, because the PRD's concept of public TV is more or less just another Channel 11, while TITV and Channel 11 are different in terms of public commitment and expectations, Jom said.

Radio and Television Reporters Association's comment on the impartiality of TITV

44 TITV workers have quit their membership of the Radio and Television Reporters Association after it revealed a survey by Media Monitor concluding that TITV was ‘biased against political parties', and inclined to favour the ‘old power clique'. Jom insisted he always opened his programmes for all groups.

"I invited the Council for National Security in my launch programme. CNS leader Gen Sonthi Bunyaratkalin and Democrat Party leader Mr Abhisit Vejjajiva showed up several times in my programme. Only 4-5 percent of my time was given to the ‘old power clique'."

Jom said media people always demanded too much from other people, like political ethics, professional ethics, good governance, etc., but rarely practised them themselves. The media is definitely also an important cause of the current crisis of disunity, and there is heavy factionalization among the media.

"I thought, after the election, following the Thaksin interview, I would invite the anti-coup activists and the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy to join my programme. I did send them invitation letters, and the anti-coup activists agreed to come, but the PAD refused saying they don't want to sit at the same table." Jom said.