Committee (CDC) Monday to reject a proposal for a
section governing media outlets in the new draft charter.
Instead, they called for self-regulation to
ensure freedom
of speech, as part of their proposals on the protection of media
freedoms and promotion of accountability within the media.
The groups were the Thai Journalists
Association, the Press
Council of Thailand, the Thai Broadcasting
Journalists
Association (TBJA), and the News Broadcasting Council
of Thailand.
They
submitted their proposals through Thitiphan
Chuaboonchai, who chairs the CDC panel on public opinion.
TBJA
president Thepchai Yong said the groups were
opposed to state regulation,
whereby a professional media
organisation would oversee the media.
He said it would be better if the draft
charter supported the
media in exercising self-regulation and put in place
mechanisms that would educate the public about the media's role,
and encourage
them to take legal action if their rights or
privacy
were infringed upon by the media.
In the previous Borwornsak Uwanno draft,
there were calls
for the charter to introduce a professional media organisation
to govern responsibility and ethics, based on the idea that
letting media outlets
supervise themselves would be ineffective.
Mr Thepchai said the charter must guarantee
freedom of
expression and independence for
employees of both
government and private agencies working in the media
industry.
"They should be free to do their job
without being controlled by
the employers, but must not violate codes of
conduct and
professional ethics," he said.
Mr Thepchai said the charter must contain a
provision to
prevent outside interference in media operations such as
attempts
to close media outlets or ban the publication of
news or opinion pieces.
He added that holders of political positions
must also be
banned from owning or holding shares in the print,
broadcasting or
telecommunications businesses.
He said the constitution must say clearly
that broadcast
frequencies are national communications resources for
public
use; to guarantee the formation of an independent
state organisation to
allocate frequencies and oversee related
businesses; and to encourage local
communities to have
a say in the operations of public media.
The
media representatives also met CDC chairman
Meechai Ruchupan.
The
committee chief said if the organisations did not want
a charter provision
governing them, it may then be
necessary to draft regulations on media
accountability and
professional ethics to keep the public informed of their rights.
He added that orders issued by the National
Council for
Peace and Order (NCPO) restricting the media would be
lifted when
the new constitution is adopted.
Also on Monday, CDC member Norachit
Sinhaseni briefed
the international community at the Foreign Ministry about
the
constitution drafting process and assured them the political
roadmap was
intact.
Mr Norachit said the foreign diplomats were
informed the
CDC was following the framework laid down by Section 35
of the
interim charter and the five-point framework by
the NCPO.
He said none of the representatives
expressed concerns about
the political situation or the charter drafting
process.
"Some countries asked when the public
would see the first
draft and when public input will be gathered.
We've assured
them the first draft will be ready within
January and will subsequently be
presented for public
opinions," he said.
News,Politics,Bangkok Post, 20 October 2015.
In my believe media and journalist should have their
rights to express and share facts their believe
freely but
still need the regulations to control for their
accountability
and professional ethics so the regulations are
need.
It could be separate regulations or include
in the draft charter
but the important point is about the
substance of the regulations.
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