แถลงการณ์คณะกรรมการรณรงค์เพื่อการปฏิรูปสื่อ (คปส.)

Continued posting this news from The Nation written by a young rising journalist, Taweeporn Kummetha, she wrote series of media and politics for The Nation recently, her points are crucial. I felt a bit tired when gave her interviews since she always asked many (good)  questions She didn’t  only want me to fill her story but enthusiastically love to learn and argue with. She said she tried her best to write impartial reports in this partial world of journalism, which is not easy task I must say. Every time I see young journalists who are  obsessed with the role of journalism I feel happy and inspired. Despite the media is highly being criticized because it’s biased and very commercialized but I still do take the role of journalism seriously and count it as the solution. More importantly, no matter what kinds of medium are, the essence of journalism is carrying the truth based on facts and free opinion.

Red media thriving, despite govt crackdown By Thaweeporn Kummetha
The Nation
Published on June 16, 2009

Although the Abhisit government grabbed a chance during the emergency decree - sending troops to raid and shut down the pro red-shirt media, D Station and community radio stations - the red media reincarnated after only a month.

…………………………….
Supinya Klangnarong, a media-rights activist, said political media was not a new phenomenon in Thailand. The creation of the red-shirt media was a mirror to the beginning of yellow-shirt media. With the sense of being a minority and the government’s opposition, they had to make space to voice their opinions, she said.

The difference between red-shirt media and yellow-shirt media, Supinya said, was in the means of suppression administered by the government.

“The suppression of red-shirt media by the Abhisit-led government was no different from the suppression of the yellow-shirt media by the Thaksin-led government in 2006. However, the means of suppression differed as the Abhisit government used the law to shut down the media, while the Thaksin government used defamation suits [to attack the media professionals],” she said.

As the conflict escalates and the government reverts to crude censorship and veiled threats, all kinds of journalists here are bracing for what they fear could be an assault on their ability to neutrally gather and present the news, and a blow to press freedom.

http://cpj.org/blog/2009/04/media-caught-in-the-middle-of-thai-conflict.php

On this Saturday morning, I read the article “The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers ” written by John Nichols & Robert W. McChesney, published in The Nation on March 18, 2009.

It raises concern on the crisis of newspapers in America which not only related to the economic meltdown but “the crisis of which we speak involves more than mere economics. Journalism is collapsing, and with it comes the most serious threat in our lifetimes to self-government and the rule of law as it has been understood here in the United States.”

It clarifies that

“Blame has been laid first and foremost on the Internet, for luring away advertisers and readers, and on the economic meltdown, which has demolished revenues and hammered debt-laden media firms. But for all the ink spilled addressing the dire circumstance of the ink-stained wretch, the understanding of what we can do about the crisis has been woefully inadequate. Unless we rethink alternatives and reforms, the media will continue to flail until journalism is all but extinguished.”

From reading this piece, I started to wonder about the possible crisis of newspapers in Thailand due to the challenges of Internet era and the political conflicts which relatively connected to the healthier democracy. You may read the full comment and recommendation suggested by two scholars from the link above.

Though, currently I am fond of Internet and reading online news most but definitely I would like to see newspapers continuing its important  role in democratic society.  So whenever I have chance I still buy few copies of newspapers from the vendors or elsewhere, just to convey my loyalty to journalism.  Journalistic works are so important, I agree that there are still the differences between the role of  journalists and the citizen journalists or bloggers as pointed.

After read the article above, it reminds me to another article I read it last year, it talked about  Arianna Huffington, the Greek-born socialite has shaken up American political media with her website the Huffington Post, published in Prospect ( www.prospect-magazine.co.uk) in August 2008, written by Andrew Keen.

The article questioned  Huffington towards her creativity of  opinion-based Huffington Post (HuffPost) website that  “by revolutionising news, might she also be in danger of destroying it?”

This kind of questions emerged more an more, Internet has changed the way things were before. It has challenged the traditional media and the way we consume information and communicate to each other. The sub-culture of Internet citizens is also intriguing.

For me, we could fight for full capacity of Internet serving basic communication’s rights but at the same time  we  should sustain the life of  newspapers.  I mean we should  uphold and protect the spirit of journalism,  for the democratic function in the country and for its own sake.