Graduate Institute of Journalism College of Social Science
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Sattrakulwong, Pitch
Abstract
In September 2006, the Yellow Shirts demonstrated a protest against the Thaksin government for insulting the royal family, and the movement forced the military to coup to overthrew the Thaksin government. The interim government set up by military took the ITV station back to official control and was renamed as Thailand Independence Television, TITV.
ITV, which was set up independently by Thai people movement in May 1992, was the first independent television station in Thailand, while the others are all controlled by the government. As people''s response to the distorted media messages from the government media agency, ITV''s aim was to deliver unbiased news of the democratic actions of the people, in order to balance the representations from the government and comercial media television, which often reported that the demonstrators were violent riots. As a result, Thai citizens did not trust the official broadcasting anymore and created a chance of social power restructure by implementing an independent television station in 1995. Since that time, ITV had presented a different voice besides the official broadcast system.
However, due to the economic crisis hit in 1997, the financial condition of the television station went down. ITV could not afford the license fee anymore and led to the acquisition of ITV by Shin Corporation, which is Thaksin''s company, in 2000. As a result, the media could no longer maintain its independence and critical position, and finally transform into a commercial TV station. More worse, ITV became the propaganda media of the Thaksin government.
ITV was once the legacy left from Thai people''s uprising movement in 90''s. Nevertheless, after the military coup in 2006, ITV was taken over by the military government and settled as part of the Government Public Relations Department(PRD) in its new name of Thai Independent Television, TITV. On 14 February 20008, following a previously unannounced order of the PRD, TITV suspended its operation in accordance with the Public Broadcasting Services Act, and the channel frequency was reassigned to Thai Public Broadcasting Service, or Thai PBS.
The abrupt process of change did raise some questions from scholars about the publicness and social responsibilities of Thai PBS, especially about the menaced possibilities that the interim government may be able to monitor the content of Thai PBS.
This dissertation intended to look deeply into the process of setting up a public TV station in Thailand and found besides media itself and the government, academics and civil society organizations also played vital roles in the process. There are many different ways to think about establishing a public TV, but finally, some group of scholars from media research succeeded to persuade the interim government choosing TITV convert to Thai PBS. The information that scholars collected suggested that the main income of Thai PBS should take from the alcohol and tobacco taxes, in a 1.5% portion, to make sure the TV station can be free from political interference. Besides, the establishment of Thai PBS raised public debate on maintenance of a public sphere. Despite the political conflicts, Thai PBS was questioned by people for media independence, freedom of speech, and the supports to the development of Thai civil society progress. After two years of running, Thai PBS have faced many difficulties and problems and still have to improve itself all the time to ensure the circulation of public sphere in Thailand. Furthermore, Thai PBS have to presented its independence from the government control and the news are beyond the political conflicts.
This dissertation consists of a theory model combining Habermas''s public sphere theory, civil society models and a collection of international comparison of public media system to investigate the development of Thai civil society and media, especially during the periods of Thailand''s political and economic evolutions in the late 20th century. Furthermore, the research included interviews of media workers, academics, and the third players in the Thai mass media and public television''s view. Gathering these comments and informations helped to developed a model for the further route of more mature public media in Thailand.
Subjects
Thailand Public Television, Thai civil society, media reform in Thailand, ITV
SDGs
Type
thesis
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