In a vivid demonstration of unity, Thailand's independent media have been shedding their political differences to challenge the government's latest measures at silencing its critics in the press and on the airwaves.

This burst of comradeship has been amply evident since Thursday, when newspapers across the ideological spectrum gave blanket front-page coverage to stunning revelations about efforts by an anti-money laundering government agency to investigate the finances of prominent journalists who have been critical of the Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The English-language The Nation newspaper faces the brunt of these investigations by the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), an arm of the government that has powers to look into seven types of violations. The violations are prostitution, drug trafficking, public fraud, banking fraud, state corruption, extortion and tax evasion.

Headlines like ''Savage! Gestapo government,'' ''Disgraceful government'' and ''Dictatorship is possible, moustache or no moustache'' appeared in three Thai-language newspapers to convey their displeasure at the government's unwarranted use of the AMLO to go into the bank accounts of 14 journalists from The Nation and two other media groups.

Local media unity

Thai journalists have also launched a signature campaign to back a petition that calls on the parliament to investigate the latest efforts by the ruling party, CCC, to intimidate media.

Since Thursday, some 500 Thai journalists have endorsed the petition, while some 300 more are expected to add their names by tomorrow, according to the Thai Journalists Association (TJA).

''We haven't had this kind of unity among local journalists in a very long time,'' asserts the association's secretary general Chavarong Limpattamapanee. ''Even normally conservative newspapers are joining this effort.''

The last time that the local media displayed such unity was in the early 1990s, when they condemned the dictatorial acts of the military regime at the time. That unity helped not only to check the authoritarianism at the time, but also to pave the way for a democratic culture following the country's bloody coup in 1992.

The closing of ranks by the media was far from true just a week ago, when a debate raged here after the Thaksin government decided to revoke the visas of two foreign correspondents for an article that had appeared in the Far Eastern Economic Review . Thaksin was portrayed in poor light in that article, which talked about relations between him and the Thai monarchy.

The Thai media was divided on that issue. ''Some sections condemned the government and came out in support of the journalists, but there were others in the press who backed Thaksin,'' says Sunai Phasuk, researcher at the Bangkok-based regional human rights lobby Forum Asia.

''Most who backed the government were in the Thai-language media,'' adds Sunai. ''They saw it as an issue of nationalism, of foreigners versus Thais, where national pride had to be protected. They did not see it as a case of media suppression.''

Big Brother tactics

What prompted a different response this time are three distinct factors: the modus operandi of the Thaksin government to intimidate its critics, the fact that journalists under surveillance were all Thais, and the implications that arise due to such 'Big Brother' tactics.

''This is the first time that the AMLO has been used as a tool to go after journalists and critics of the government,'' says Veera Prateepchaikul, deputy editor at the Bangkok Post newspaper. ''And so far the AMLO cannot come up with a convincing reason to support its investigations.''

According to Kulachada Chaipipat of the South-east Asian Press Alliance (Seapa), the government's latest action ''hits home'' because if Thai journalists do not oppose it now, any one of them who crosses swords with the prime minister can be subject to such ''unfair abuse''.

''The journalists are aware about where this can lead to,'' adds Kulachada, Thailand country director Seapa. ''It is clear that the government has gone too far, thinking it can intimidate the local press the way it has the foreign press.''

The Nation , in a front-page commentary on Friday, likened the Thai government's use of the AMLO to intimidate journalists to media suppression in the Philippines under the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

In a Thursday editorial, the Bangkok Post stated, ''The latest assault on press freedoms, by digging into the wholly private matters of media companies and journalists, is frighteningly reminiscent of those too recent dark ages of military and civilian dictatorship (in Thailand).''

Prime Minister Thaksin, however, has responded to the revelations in a predictable manner  denying that he ordered the investigation. ''I can reassure you that I don't know anything about this,'' Thaksin was quoted as having told the local media. ''The government did not order the check and there was no such action.''

But that has hardly convinced his detractors. ''No government agency will dare go after the press like this unless orders came from the powers that be,'' Kulachada says.

''Only the foolish and the gullible could believe the AMLO is acting on its own initiative,' the Bangkok Post editorial argued.

Intimidation is not the way

The government's record illustrates why such criticism and scepticism abound in local media circles, given the many attempts by the Thaksin administration to force the independent media to submit to its whims since it came to power in January last year. They have been done despite the Thai constitution's guarantee of rights like freedom of expression.

Only this month, the country's defence department forced the cancellation of a political programme on radio. The government agency that regulates broadcasting forced a cable television operator to suspend a talk show that is often critical of the government.

Prior to that, the Thaksin government succeeded in stopping the distribution in Thailand of two international news magazines, attempted to secure favourable coverage in the local media by applying economic pressure and backroom deals and got critical voices in a television station removed.

''It is obvious that the government is using such pressure on its critics than confronting them through the mechanisms available in a democracy, such as the courts,'' asserts Panitan Wattanayagorn, a lecturer in political science at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. ''Intimidation is not the way.''

The government's attitude toward the media has prompted concern that Thaksin, Thailand's wealthiest tycoon and whose party won a landslide victory in last year's polls, is ultra-sensitive to criticism that comes with public office.

On Tuesday, Thaksin was quoted as saying: ''The media can have freedom, but their freedom should be constructive. It is not that they can criticise anyone without thinking of negative consequences to the country's stability. . . The nation needs unity now.''

Chavarong expects the Thaksin government to come under more pressure from the local media unless he goes public with a pledge to uphold media freedom.

''He has never announced that he supports press freedom, so this is the chance for him to do so,'' Chavarong asserts. ''Thaksin must also guarantee that government agencies like the AMLO will not be used to intimidate the media.''