ICT Expo 2007 - Part 3
Dr Pana Thongmeerakorn speaks his mind
By Jon Fernquest |
Dr Pana Thongmeerakorn focused on rule of law and unlicensed televisions that ignore laws in his talk at ICT Expo 2007:
Dr Pana Thongmeerakorn, dean of communications arts at Huachiew University and at one time a National Broadcasting Commissioner-designate, welcomed the audience to a country without the rule of law. Thailand has more rogue television and radio stations than legal ones and even those that are licensed often ignore laws. "How can you have free and fair competition when the length of the contract is uncertain? When there is a new general in command, you have to run to them and plead for a new contract. Broadcasters end up like street vendors who do not dare to invest as they do not know when they will be evicted," he said.Pana said that the cost of licences was also uneven. MCOT and the Public Relations Department (PRD) do not pay licence fees yet they compete with commercial channels for advertising.
He also commented on the unfairness of shutting ITV down earlier this year:
He also posthumously defended ITV, saying that it was unfair to have forced them to run more news - which has a lower commercial value than entertainment - while having to pay more for that privilege. "And then we executed them. We turned something that used to bring the country between 600 and 800 million baht a year into something that will cost the taxpayer 2,000 million a year to run. Public TV may be a good idea, but there must be a better way to do it."
He also questioned whether Thailand's restrictions on cross-media holdings were in the best interest of the country:
Pana also questioned if the ban on cross-media holdings would hold back Thailand on the international stage. "Time Warner CNN, Vivendi, all these companies are merging so they can compete with media conglomerates from other countries. We need to look at the country level as well as the international level."
Regarding the possibility that unregulated TV and radio stations would be able to influence the elections:
He said that he was certain whether the many illegal, unregulated TV and radio stations would be used to influence the elections and he blamed the impending mess on the lack of courage by the NTC and civil servants, who he said are to scared to take action."Today we have already lost our sovereignty. We have people distributing content though CDs and DVDs. We have signals beamed into our home from space, IPTV, file sharing. How can we control that content?"
Guidelines, industry self-regulation, and media education are the answers:
Pana said that he believes that the best way forward will be co-regulation, with the NBTC working with industry to set guidelines for self regulation. He agreed with the other panellists that media education and teaching people to know what is healthy to watch, will be important - similar to how the government promotes healthy eating.
This is the third part of a multi-part series. In part I Dr Anuparp Teeralarp explained regulatory problems and criticized them severely. Life in in the world of rapidly emerging technologies just doesn't have to be like this. (Read part I) In part II Dr. Sudharma Yoonaidharma told us that it is time for older regulators to stand aside and let convergence begin in Thailand.
Vocabulary:
designate - chosen for the job
the rule of law - the principle that no one is above the law, for example if you break the law you can go to jail even if you are very wealthy and very powerful (See Wikipedia)
rogue television and radio stations - stations operating outside the law (either without a license or ignoring laws)
licensed - have received official permission to do something
evicted - kicked out, forced to leave
MCOT - Mass Communication Organisation of Thailand, a Thai conglomerate that is 77% owned by the government, operates a television station and 62 radio stations across the country, also owns TV Channel 3 but contracts the management of that station out to a private operator BEC World, also operates the Thai News Agency (TNA) wire service (See Wikipedia)
licence fees - money paid for the right to do something
posthumously - after death
ITV - TV stationstarted in 1995 when the company was granted a 30-year concession, after a long dispute over unpaid concession fees, in 2007 the station was taken over by the government's Public Relations Department and its name was changed to Thai Independent Television (TITV) (See Wikipedia)
a privilege - a special right to do something
cross-media holdings - when one media company owns (holds shares) in another media company
conglomerates - large corporations owning a variety of businesses
civil servants - career government workers
co-regulation - cooperation between authorities and the regulated, combining self-regulation with regulation by authorities (For definition see Institute of European Media Law report)
panellists - experts in a group (panel) discussing an issue
