PAISAL SRICHARATCHANYA

Editor, September 1989 to October 1994

Iwas fortunate enough to serve as editor of the Bangkok

Post when the newspaper was at its very peak — and it was also during a crucial period when the Thai press transitioned into a new era of real freedom. After having worked at this newspaper in the early stages of my journalistic career from 1971-77, it was like returning to the old home when I was invited back to head its editorial department from 1989-94.

Those hectic but hugely rewarding five years became the high point of my journalistic life as well as the best years of the newspaper.

As an authorised director of Post Publishing Plc serving alongside managing director Nigel Oakins, my role extended beyond simply editing the newspaper to other areas that helped enhance the newspaper’s public standing and revenue.

I was responsible for expanding the Post’s content by introducing weekly news sections to broaden and deepen the diversity of subject matters covered by the newspaper.

Aside from regular sections on politics, sports, business and society, the daily newspaper package was augmented by special sections: Investment & Property, Inside Indochina, Post Database (technology), Horizons (tourism) and Motoring.

Worthy of mention is Inside Indochina, published every Tuesday. We were the first Thailand-based newspaper that had gone regional by establishing our own full-time news bureau in Hanoi. The move corresponded with the Chatichai Choonhavan government’s strategic policy to befriend Thailand’s socialist neighbours. Gen Chatichai’s well-known slogan to “turn Indochina from battlefield to marketplace” still resonates until this day.

Advertisements in these special sections contributed significantly to Post Publishing’s annual net profits, which peaked at more than 200 million baht — the highest in the company’s history and never matched in subsequent years. The economy was booming under Gen Chatichai’s expansionary policy and our special sections such as Investment & Property found it difficult to cope with clients’ demand for colour adverts.

The economic bubble finally burst. What ensued was the infamous tom yum kung financial crisis of 1997 that rendered a broad section of Thai financial institutions, businesses and industries bankrupt. The rest was history.

Editorially, the Post continued to scale new heights in its news coverage and stance on important issues, which bolstered the newspaper’s position as Thailand’s leading English-language newspaper. On top of normal daily duties, I had the privilege of doing the regional round of VIP interviews. These included, among others, exclusive interviews with Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew and Chinese premier Li Peng.

Against the backdrop of a relatively free press compared with the situation in other Southeast Asian countries, media practitioners in Thailand still had to constantly test and expand the boundaries of coverage on sensitive issues to enhance our freedom.

Then came the historic turning point marking the ultimate triumph for Thailand’s journalistic fraternity when, in 1990, a coalition of big-name Thai journalists under the umbrella of the Press Council of Thailand — notably Manit Suksomchit of Thai Rath, Pongsak Payakavichien of Matichon, Suthichai Yoon of The Nation and myself from the Bangkok Post — successfully put the draconian, press-gagging Article 42 to rest. That effectively ushered in a new era of unfettered press freedom.

So, those were the good old days that I’ve cherished until now. Aside from some minor hitches here and there, those five years represented the most meaningful chapter in my life and I never regretted any single moment. Things have changed a great deal since then and I just hope the Post can return to its past glorious days.