During the 2020-2021 pro-democracy protests, reporters in the field have been arrested and injured despite wearing visible press IDs and staying in groups with other reporters, while reporters covering resource disputes, development projects, and labor rights continue to face lawsuits.
Meanwhile, reporters working in the Deep South are at risk of harassment and arbitrary detention. Their sources are also threatened to pressure reporters to stop covering stories.
In many cases, assaulting reporters is normalized, such as when Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha sprayed hand sanitizer at reporters at the Government House, or when Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense General Prawit Wongsuwan appeared to punch a reporter, which was explained as him “teasing” the reporter. Oftentimes, cases of violence against Thai journalists are not investigated, and no perpetrators are brought to justice.
Dire press freedom situation
In the aftermath of the National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO) coup of May 22, 2014, Freedom House ranked Thailand’s media as “Not Free” for a number of years running. Following the general election in 2019, the country’s status was briefly raised to “Partly Free” only to return to “Not Free” the following year.
Crowd control police pull a reporter covering a protest away from the site. (Photo from iLaw)
In its 2020 annual report, Freedom House explained that Thailand’s improved ranking in 2019 was due to the fact that although laws limiting press freedom were still in use, the NCPO canceled some of the controls that left Thai and foreign-language mass media exposed to junta censorship, threats, and lawsuits.
Explaining the ranking downgrade in its 2021 report, Freedom House stated that Gen. Prayut’s government had declared a state of emergency using a 2005 Royal Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situations, which gives the government power to limit mass media reporting. It also imposed a Computer Crimes Act, which threatens the possibility of lawsuits and stipulates that violators can be sentenced to up to five years in prison. The report further noted government requests for deletion of content, the arrest of reporters covering anti-government protests, and government appeals to the courts resulting in the closure of at least four news agencies.
According to Reporters without Borders (RSF)’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index, the 2019 election did not result in any significant improvement in press freedom in Thailand. Government critics continued to be stifled by strict laws and a politically compromised judiciary.
RSF also discussed the 2019 Cyber Security Act, which increases governmental authority and poses a threat to online data, and the use of lesè majesté laws under Section 112 of the Criminal Code which stipulates 3-15 years of imprisonment as tools to block the public and mass media from expressing opposition to the government.
As a consequence, media coverage of the pro-democracy protests in 2020 was marked by considerable self-censorship while references to demands for monarchy reform were systematically deleted from mainstream mass media reports.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Thai government has enacted laws and used existing regulations to prohibit the reporting of what it dubs false information for fear that it will cause public concern. They have also arrested or repatriated reporters and bloggers from Cambodia, China, and Vietnam who took refuge in Thailand back to their respective countries to face imprisonment.
Defining violence towards mass media
Phansasiri Kularb, a lecturer at the Faculty of Communication Arts in Chulalongkorn University and a scholar of journalism in conflict settings, says that mass media work is directly related to violence; journalists are on the frontline, uncovering truths, posing questions, and investigating events that arise in society — in many instances, violent events that endanger their lives and mental health and threaten the safety and survival of their respective organizations.
Phansasiri added that the risks stem from interacting with people to collect information in dangerous settings such as during demonstrations and civil unrest. Data collected by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows that more journalists die from reporting on politics, corruption, and human rights than from covering wars
According to Phansasiri, the reports of various human rights groups and international organizations about violence directed at mass media supports a theory proposed by Johan Galtung, a peace studies scholar, who categorizes such violence into three levels: direct/physical violence (including a threat to life, physical assault, sexual harassment, and murder); structural violence (involving the use of legal mechanisms, regulations, and market structures that impede the work and freedom of mass media); and cultural violence (referring to undemocratic thought processes that do not conform to human rights principles, impeding the work of authorized organizations, directors, and media workers).
Mass media as targets of protest violence
Mob Data Thailand collects data on public protests in the country. From 2020 to Oct. 29, 2021, there have been at least 1,291 protests, some 58 of which were suppressed. During these protests, however, media people covering the protests were clearly targeted — shot with rubber bullets, physically assaulted, and arrested. Some were even injured by explosive devices.
Using weapons to suppress protests first started on Oct. 15, 2020, when the government declared an emergency situation. The following day, officers started using high-pressure water trucks and tear gas as weapons to disperse the protesters.
Kitti Pantapak, a Prachatai journalist, live-streamed the dispersal. The following day, he was arrested and brought to detention with his wrists in cable ties behind his back for more than two hours. He was charged with disobeying a lawful order and released. Other reporters in the area were hit with tear gas.
Since then, police officers have continued to use weapons to suppress protests while violence has escalated. Rubber bullets were used for the first time at the Nov. 17, 2020 protest in front of the parliament. The state started to forcefully arrest protesters at the Feb. 13, 2021 protest in front of the city pillar shrine.
At a protest on Oct. 29, 2021 held in memory of Warit Somnoi, a 15-year-old boy who died after being shot in front of the Din Daeng police station, there were reports that police shot rubber bullets from a moving truck towards protesters and journalists on the footpath. The non-governmental group iLaw reported that police seized a mobile phone from a civilian reporter affiliated with the Kathoei Mae Luk On Facebook page.
Lawsuits as tools of intimidation
Since the 2019 general election, threats against journalists have taken the form of lawsuits for published pieces. The Human Rights Lawyers Association has been collecting data on at least 195 cases of strategic lawsuits against public participation in Thailand, at least 10 of which were against journalists.
Since 2019, at least three cases were lodged against journalists: a chicken farm defamation lawsuit against Voice TV reporter; a contempt of court case against Sarinee Achavanuntakul and the Krungthep Turakij newspaper editor; and a defamation lawsuit filed by a Thai mining company in Myanmar against former Green News editor Pratch Rujivanarom.
Those who sue the media can be relentless. The most recent case is the defamation lawsuit filed by the Myanmar Pongpipat Company, a Thai mining company in Myanmar, against Pratch Rujivanarom, then editor of Green News, for reporting that a Myanmar court ordered the firm to pay Tawai villagers 2.4 million baht for tin mine environmental damage. The report was published on the Green News website on Jan. 13, 2020.
This case is the second time that the mining company has pressed charges against Pratch. In 2017, the company filed a lawsuit for defamation and reporting false information in response to the article “Thai mine destroys Myanmar water sources,” which was published by the Nation Online. The case ended with mediation and the company dropping the charge.
Reporting from the south
Unlike Thai journalists covering the protests, those in the restive southern border provinces are not targets of violence but may become collateral damage, according to Phansasiri, Thai Media for Democracy Alliance coordinator Nattharavut Muangsuk, and independent reporter Nualnoi Thammasathien, all of whom have reported in the Deep South provinces.
On Nov. 24, 2019, officers of unknown affiliation raided a coffee shop in the Talat Kao area, Yala province in the south, where Wartani news agency’s editor-in-chief, Ruslan Musor, and four other employees were conducting an editorial team meeting.
Sarayut Tangprasert (left) was shot with a rubber bullet, while Kitti Pantapak was arrested and detained. Both journalists were covering different protests for Prachatai in 2021.
Ruslan was taken to the police station for interrogation without a lawyer. The officers seized his mobile phone to check his International Mobile Equipment Identity number, before releasing him. They also repeatedly told Ruslan to explain to others that what happened was all a misunderstanding.
Ruslan said that Wartani reporters have always been threatened, sometimes with lawsuits. They also get followed while traveling or asked to tone down their reporting. Police officers have also visited family members or their sources at home to pressure Wartani reporters into removing articles or to prohibit them from speaking to these reporters.
Normalizing harm
Reporters assigned to the Government House are another group that faces physical violence. In 2019, photos of Thai PBS reporter Wasana Nanuam being punched in the stomach by Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, deputy prime minister and minister of defense, appeared in the press.
Wasana later explained that they were just playing around. In her words, “… it’s normal to tease or prank reporters that ask a lot of questions, particularly reporters covering the military. They grit their teeth and hit our shoulders, arms and stomach. It seems normal now.”
On March 9, 2021, Gen. Prayut sprayed hand sanitizer at reporters after being asked about plans to adjust his Council of Ministers. In addition, while the head of the NCPO, Gen. Prayut threw banana peels, water, instant noodles packets, and a tuberculosis test kit at reporters. There are also photos of him hitting reporters on the head.
On Sept. 3, 2021, photos were published of Gen. Prawit using his hand to touch the face of a reporter in anger and using his fist to punch a female reporter in the face after being asked about conflicts within the Palang Pracharath Party, of which he is currently head.
Police officers confiscate the phone of a citizen journalist from the Kathoei Mae Luk On social media page. (Photo from iLaw)
Threats to public’s right to know
According to Phansasiri, the use of various types of violence against members of the mass media threatens public communication rights. Instead of hearing from all sides, people will only receive partial truths. They will be left without a space to exchange ideas and debate issues in order to reach a conclusion or agreement.
Nualnoi said that violence inflicted on media workers often starts small and grows bigger over time, becoming a new standard, a new normal.
“If what happened at Din Daeng is repeated again and again, we’ll get a new normal that says whenever there is a protest, say, a protest at Ratchadamnoen, officers will announce that the area is off-limits, that the media is not allowed inside. This means the eyes of the public will not see some places, some points. And we’ll accept this as the New Normal,” Nualnoi said. ●
This article is a condensed version of the original, first published by Prachatai on Nov. 2, 2021. It is republished here by the Asia Democracy Chronicles with permission. Follow this link to read the full article.
