TEEPAGORN WUTTIPITAYAMONGKOL

Editor-in-chief of The Matter, an online news and feature magazine

If the media bill passes in its current state, how will you be affected?

In their last revision of the draft, legislators removed the penalties they had previously integrated to the bill and replaced the license with an obligation to obtain a certificate. However, they do not specify what purpose the certification will serve. We don’t know what the consequences will be, if you don’t have a certification, for example.

Our team at The Matter has discussed this possibility. If there’s really an obligation to register or to obtain a license or certification, we’ll comply, in order to continue to do our work. But if there are conditions attached that we don’t agree with, we will fight them. And I believe we won’t be alone in this fight

What consequences will the media bill have on the media landscape?

At the moment, we have a draft bill that’s quite broad and we don’t know the details yet. These details are important, because they’ll allow us to see exactly the legislators’ vision on how they wish to regulate or control the media.

We will also have to scrutinise when and how the committee and government will use the law. It will be a case-by-case examination.

But for the moment, legislators are sending a message that’s rather aggressive. Most countries don’t have such severe laws on the media.

Today, we are already censoring ourselves and tread very carefully. Apparently, they believe it’s not enough. It will be tougher for us to work.

What is your definition of ‘media’ in this time and place?

I think that everyone can be part of the ‘media’ today. Whenever someone comes out to point at a social injustice, a flaw in a government policy and voice it and this content gets read and shared widely, they are doing the work of a media outlet.

Although legislators have recently scrapped the obligation for media workers to register and obtain a license from the draft bill, what are your thoughts on the issue?

I think it’s impractical. There are many pages that have more than 10,000 followers. Page administrators don’t control the number of their followers either. Will everyone have to register once they plan on creating a new page? It seems that it will likely be a mess.

Is the media in Thailand out of control? Should there be regulation and, if so, how should it be done?

Many people in Thailand think that it’s out of control. Even if the media self-regulates, they won’t trust us, or believe that we are doing so.

I would like to see media organisations come together and draft a code of conduct. Media outlets that follow this code of conduct should get some sort of certification mark, to show media consumers that they are following a set of rules and can be trusted — and to distinguish themselves from other outlets that don’t.

But at the end of the day, even if such certification mark existed, would audiences look at it? Audiences also play a large role in this matter.

If you complain about people killing themselves on Facebook Live, don’t watch this kind of content. If there’s no audience, will people still want to create such videos?