Coup, the media angle | 20.09.06
Last night, Army-run Channel 5 was the first to interrupt normal programming and put on hymns glorifying the king.
Between 10 and 11 pm, government-run Modern 9 TV broadcast Prime Minister Thaksin’s declaration of the state of emergency. Reporting real-time from Bangkok like a resourceful international correspondent that he was, CNN’s Dan Rivers referred to that as “some sort of address”.
At this point, the other channels ran neither the hymns nor the PM’s declaration.
By midnight, however, all of the free channels, including Modern 9, were gone. Monarch TV music videos looped over and over, interrupted only by the coup stagers’ brief text and video declaration. In the video, an army general in civilian clothing read a statement proclaiming the coup successful.
Shortly afterwards, UBC, the country’s most extensive cable operator, announced a “technical problem” and a blackout ensued.
Tellingly, during this near-total media shutdown, the coup stagers allowed two news channels, Nation Channel and Sondhi’s ASTV to broadcast as normal.
Our coup stagers were friends of the press after all, eh? Or is it the other way round?
Around 9:30 am, the Army Chief, flanked by the two other military chiefs, the police chief, and a dorky token representing civil servants, issued the first formal declaration. The putsch pushers went by the tortuous name of Ka-na-pa-ti-roop-karn-pok-krong-nai-ra-bob-pra-cha-thip-pa-tai-un-mee-pra-ma-ha-ka-sat-song-pen-pra-pra-mook (Commision for Reforming Democracy with the Monarch as Head of State.)
(A side note: the Army Chief is the biggest cheese in the Thai military, far bigger than the “Supreme Commander” or any putative civilian master. The Police force is modeled after the military, complete with “police generals”.)
The shutdown ended shortly after. All the television channels began with news of the coup, which everybody approves of and which everybody thinks will bring peace and prosperity.
Cable television resumed, but news channels such as CNN and the BBC are still blocked.
At 11 o’clock, the old suited general returned with an order for the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology basically to crack down on… what’s the wording… unhelpful activities? harmful propagation? Anyway, it has to do with the internet, and we all know precisely what it is.
And we now also know why media interference, which was one of the most oft-heard charges against the Thaksin government, was not cited among a litany of reasons for the coup. Nor will there be a whimper from our intrepid media, which, like all bullies, only pick on those who cannot fight back. Four legs good, two legs better, the putsch-over will say.
Through all of this, a clueless-expat-turned-CNN-iReporter blamed the government’s censorship.
Thanks for allowing me to follow the news because every channel is now blocked! It is incredible how the government wants to hide what is going on to Thai people! I just saw a tank on Rama IV where I live a few minutes ago … I hope everything will be alright in a few days … and I hope that the Internet will not be blocked too. [Emphasis added.]
Julien Guilbert, Bangkok, Thailand
Where on earth do they find these people? Thailand, of course. Mostly around Patpong and Nana.
update CNN and the BBC are now back on. It’s not clear why they bothered to block CNN in the first place. Aneesh Raman couldn’t have been more pro-coup, and more wrong, than he was last night. The BBC reporter, on the other hand, called the coup a step backward Thailand, which was more obviously true than I thought the international media was capable of reporting. Also to its credit, the Beeb last night realized quickly its mistake of interviewing Pasuk Phongpaichit live, and cut her off after maybe fifteen halting, laborious and substanceless words.
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