PressEthic

I was reading what seemed, at first, to be a pretty straightforward article in the International Herald Tribune about the prime minister of Thailand posing a threat to freedom of the media.

According to the story, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has filed libel lawsuits against various journalists, bringing financial pressure to bear down upon freedom of speech. Most recently, "Thaksin filed a criminal defamation suit against Sondhi Limthongkul, owner of the Manager publishing group, and Sarocha Pornudomsak, his co-host on a recently terminated television talk show." According to the lawsuit, Sondhi and Sarocha accused Thaksin of being disloyal to the Thai monarchy, a pretty big offence. The amount being sought in damages is a crippling $12.1 million.

The article then goes into a little history about how Thailand had a very open and free press that is now rendered ineffective by various means of censorship -- the latest, financial pressure, introduced by Thaksin. Sondhi is not the first journalist to be sued and the Thai media fear he won't be the last.

However, what I thought was most interesting was a little tidbit buried towards the end of the story. First there's a quote from Sondhi:

"I'm not surprised he sued me because he cannot answer the questions I address to the public," Sondhi said in an interview. "I'm the only media man who dares to stand up to him, and that he hates."

And then, right under that, is a paragraph explaining that Sondhi and Thaksin used to be quite chummy. And I mean, really chummy -- Thaksin bailed Sondhi out of bankruptcy back in 1997! It seems the tide only turned in the last few months when Sondhi claims he finally saw the prime minister's "true colors."

Perhaps I'm being harsh here, but after reading that, I can no longer trust Sondhi or his opinions about the prime minister and his motives. That's not to say I don't believe Thaksin is a repressive autocrat. There are enough examples of that. But in this particular case, I think it was a lot more personal -- it wasn't about media censorship so much as just plain getting even. Hey, he stabbed the man in the back -- what did he expect? And while I think it's perfectly acceptable to change your mind about someone, I don't think it's appropriate to be commenting on that person's politics when you have been financially indebted to them. There's a serious conflict of interest and, to me, Sondhi comes out looking much worse.