Army pulls in Sakda for chat on cartoons
A Thai Rath cartoonist who was summoned for attitude adjustment by the military admitted his cartoons may be too satirical against the government but insisted they were well-intentioned.
Sakda Sae Iao, more commonly known by his nickname Sia, was called in for a meeting with the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) at 10am yesterday and was detained until 11.30am. Following the talk he vowed to be more careful about his cartoons, particularly those involving politics, a highly sensitive topic. Mr Sakda also promised he would base his cartoons strictly on facts, although he said this already applies to his works as the ideas for them originate from daily news reports.
Before his meeting, Mr Sakda said cartoonists were like columnists in that they made criticism and added opinions to their work. So when it came to including certain messages in his cartoons “sometimes when [my thoughts] reached a climax, I felt like I was caught in so much fun that I could not resist”.
The NCPO expressed concern over some of his work that it felt was not based on facts. One cartoon depicted the government’s purchase of seven new trains for the Airport Rail Link at a price allegedly greater than those bought by Malaysia. He argued he drew that cartoon based on what was reported by newspapers.
Mr Sakda said the NCPO did not ask him to sign an agreement pledging to avoid issues that could provoke conflicts in society, nor did they threaten to punish him for his previous cartoons. But he was told he would face prosecution if his future cartoons caused any damage.
The NCPO previously summoned Mr Sakda for a talk on national reconciliation last year, just two weeks after its coup. It asked the cartoonist to tone down his messages while it was trying to restore peace in Thailand. Mr Sakda said he had gone off track since the NCPO’s request due to the long period that had elapsed since their previous meeting, and offered his apology.
Meanwhile, democracy advocates yesterday agreed to a demand by authorities to change the topic of a Thammasat University forum.
Organisers, including the New Democracy Movement, had prepared a talk on dictators and how they deal with dissidents, but later decided to discuss social media and the internet single gateway.