Human safety overrides media freedom, seminar told

Responsible news reporting sometimes has to be held above the importance of media freedom, a seminar on lessons learned from the rescue operation at the flooded Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district was told yesterday.

“More important than media freedom is the safety of humans,” said Thapanee Ietsrichai, an assistant news editor with Channel 3 who has been covering various major disasters in Thailand and overseas over the past 18 years in her journalistic career.

The seminar at Thammasat University was aimed at discussing what lessons the Thai media have learned from covering the search and rescue of the 12 young footballers and their coach at the cave. Speakers were some of the Thai journalists covering the incident.

At that time, media freedom must be balanced with responsible reporting, especially when it came to a matter of life and death, she said, adding that every second in the operation counted as it could affect the lives of the children.

And there were more options to choose from in searching for news during the operation without affecting or disrupting such an important and difficult operation, she said.

She admitted to sneaking, in the beginning, into the rescue zone along with the rescuers and as well as asking some of them to carry her camera to film the operation for her.

But she later learned that that wouldn’t do anyone any good and she should follow the rules and stick to the verified information about the operation provided by the official operation centre.

More than 1,400 members of the media from all over the world converged at the cave area to cover this operation around the clock, which in part helped broaden the local media’s perspective on covering a covering news in a crisis, she said.

“On the day those children were taken to a press conference for the first time, of course, everyone wanted to interview them all by his or herself. But we had to cooperate with the Department of Mental Health and abide by the child protection law,” she said.

Benjapoj Thipkamosaeng, a crime reporter with Thai PBS, on the other hand viewed the sedating matter as something

of a grey area, saying he thought it might be insensitive to reveal details about the need to sedate the boys to their concerned parents, through the media, even before the extraction operation began because that could unnecessarily add to their worries.

“The Tham Luang cave incident has pointed to the need for members of the media to change as the speed in breaking news isn’t any longer most important,” said Dumrongkiat Mala, a Bangkok Post reporter.

“Sensationalism by the media is being increasingly scrutinised by the audience.”