Thai media groups claim government intimidation continuing

"The freedom to report pertinent views on public issues is deemed essential to foster understanding in society," the Thai Journalists' Association and the Thai Broadcasting Journalists' Association said in a joint statement.

A group of protesters also marched to The Nation's editorial office on Tuesday and accused it of publishing biased reports even though none of them could cite a specific news item deemed unacceptable.

Haha, well, a few obviously biased stories jump to mind:
-- the article stating that Thaksin had been removed as head of the organizing committee for the King's 60th anniversary celebration (this was later admitted to be incorrect, yet the original story remains prominently linked on the website with no update)
-- the article quoted in the previous post concerning political fallout re: the EGAT verdict. 7 paragraphs of opposition party statements and gloating over the verdict. A single line summing up the ruling party position, which was then dismissed as "lame" in print by the reporter (!)

I can't think of more than one or two editions of The Nation since the beginning of March that were not filled with pro-opposition headlines and cheerleading editorials like "No Choice: Thaksin Must Step Down."

So, having answered The Nations's little challenge, which was kind of schoolyardish and silly in an oh so Thai way (e.g., "nuh uh, we're not biased -- name one instance!" -- a classic attempt to obscure the forest with the trees), I would pose the following question: Has a single article or editorial been published in the past 2 weeks (14 editions) that has attempted to present the government side in the current dispute? Has there been a single article or editorial in the past month that has taken a positive or even neutral/objective tone about any government activity or initiative, no matter how small?

Furthermore, I noticed a lot of speeches being made at the pro-Thaksin rallies. Why were none of these speeches summarized or the rallies themselves reported on with the same level of excruciating minute-by-minute detail given to Sondhi's rallies?

For The Nation to claim it's not biased is a joke. It's also troubling that more editorial effort has been expended to deny the bias than to contain it.

Although I believe the Thai government has and does do quite a bit to illegally and unconstitutionally curtail press freedom, The Nation is doing their cause no justice by being so obviously politicized that it only lends credence to the government's position that Thai journalism is unprofessional and undeserving of what freedom it currently enjoys.

With freedom comes responsibility. This is a lesson Thai journalism desperately needs to learn if it wants to legitimately claim protected status under the current constitution.