VEERA PRATEEPCHAIKUL

Editor, June 2002 to February 2004

Time flies. It has been 12 long years since I was editor of the Bangkok Post. I was also appointed deputy editor-in-chief in February 2004 — one month after a day of shame for the army on the morning of Jan 4 when about 50 heavily armed southern militants stormed the arms depot of the Fourth Engineering Battalion at Narathiwat Rajanakarin Camp and took away more than 400 weapons, mostly M16 assault rifles. Four troopers were killed.

The daring attack marked the start of a new round of insurgency war by a new breed of militants against the Thai state that has dragged on until today, leaving behind a trail of deaths, injuries and destruction.

Looking back, 2004 saw two infamous events in the deep South that had a far-reaching impact on the psyche of Malay Muslims in the region — the Krue Se mosque incident on April 28 in which security forces stormed the historic mosque in Pattani and killed 32 suspected militants, and the Tak Bai tragedy on Oct 25 in which 87 Muslim protesters died from suffocation after they were piled up on the back of trucks to be transported to a military camp from the scene of the protest.

It was also the third year in office of then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as he continued to consolidate his power and to muzzle critical media through legal intimidation, political and financial interference, coercion and co-optation. Media outlets that refused to toe the government’s line came under heavy financial pressure, for instance, with the pullout of advertisements from government agencies and pro-government private companies.

Media advocate Supinya Klangnarong, now a member of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, became a victim of Thaksin’s legal intimidation when she was sued for criminal and civil defamation for her negative remarks to Thai Post about the Thaksin administration’s favourable policies towards his family’s business, Shin Corp.

During my editorship, there was no direct pressure from the government, although occasionally there was pressure from our own management, which, I believed then, might have felt the heat to toe the government’s line.

Once I was asked by a top executive whether one of my senior staff had any ill intent against the government and whether any of my Burmese staff were against the Burmese military dictatorship. I vouched for their professional integrity anyway but could not help wondering whether there was any outside political interference that I was not aware of.

Comparing media pressure during the Thaksin regime with the situation today under the military junta, the mainstream media today is less threatened, although Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha may appear to be more aggressive with his occasional bashing of the media compared to Thaksin’s “carrot and stick” approach.