For most Thai journalists, attempts to control the media in the past two years under the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are a new battlefront they have never experienced before.

The recent acquisition of 11 percent of shares in The Nation Multimedia Group, an independent media organisation, by family members of a cabinet minister has alerted many journalists to more subtle threats to media freedom, like issues of ownership.

"The media's strength in initiating public debates to check on the state power has disappeared much," Prasong Lertrattavisuth a senior editor of the Thai newspaper group 'Matichon' told a meeting on media reform organised by the Thai Broadcasters Association and the Thai Journalists Association TJA).

Prasong says the economic influence by politicians is a major factor in the weakening of local media. Money influence through advertisements has made media more of a business -- aimed at business survival and open to the threat of financial consequences, rather than professional values or their public mission.

Yet media's task, Prasong continues, must be the initiation of debates regarding the public interest, apart from reporting facts and events.

"Media can initiate an agenda for public debate as long as it is done in a professional way and not because it is told to do so," he said. "This is something professional media people know is not easy.''

Major shareholder

He was commenting in the wake of reports that a key amount of shares in The Nation Multimedia Group, a private and public-listed company, had been bought by close relatives of Communication and Transportation Minister Suriya Jungrungreungkij.

According to the Stock Exchange of Thailand at the end of November, the Jungrungreungkij family members holds 11.11 percent of shares in the media group, whose flagship print entity is the English-language newspaper The Nation .

Local media reported that the family is now a major shareholder whose stake exceeds that of the group's two major shareholders - group president Thanachai Teerapatanawong (8.72 percent) and founder and journalist Sutichai Yoon (8.19 percent).

Both Minister Suriya and The Nation management have since denied that there was political interference through the buying of The Nation shares.

Minister Suriya denied his involvement in the purchase, saying this was due to individual decisions of his family members not known to him. "I never thought of holding shares or taking part in managing media group, but if a media group has a good (business) future, it is worth buying," said the minister.

But this is of little comfort to many journalists, who say that the fact that the family of a government politician has acquired a major stake in The Nation indicates political influence over a media institution once seen as having critical stance toward the government.

Apart from running the Natio n newspaper, the group runs a number of Thai publications and a television channel.

In March last year, the Army Emergency Department told a radio concessionaire to withdraw The Nation's News Talk programme because it was too critical of the government.

A day later, the Anti-Money Laundering Office sent a letter to commercial banks asking for cooperation on getting the account information of editors of the Nation and its senior journalists.

The government denied issuing an order for the Anti-Money Laundering Office to go after the Nation Group, saying the decision was made by its management.

Ownership threat

From this kind of moves that intimidate media, the threat has now shifted to ownership as well, critics say.

"This move (by the politician acquiring a significant amount of shares) is an interesting move to watch for media professionals. That is because it had been known that The Nation had not gotten along well with the government and that the government has tried every attempt to intervene

media, but failed to succeed," wrote a columnist in a Thai-language weekly Siam Rath .

In its 2002 annual report, the Thai Journalists Association (TJA) pointed out that the year saw a phenomenon in which physical abuses against Thai journalists declined, only to be replaced by the more sophisticated and subtle political interference.

TJA cites government agencies' intimidation against radio and television programmes that provided critical views of the government. Programme producers have been forced to tone down news content for economic survival, it points out.

Takeng Somsap, a radio journalist, admitted this, saying that many broadcasting programmes now just report facts without providing critical opinions in order to be on the safe side.

"Thai radio nowadays, unlike in the past, don't really provide critical views on the government," he said. "Most radio or television programmes do report facts as they are. This might be at least useful in a (present) political situation," he pointed out.

According to TJA, Thai media have become more vulnerable to economic pressure and lawsuits brought by politicians. Media coverage of influential figures has declined because of the fear of a political backlash.

"The professional quality of media personnel is (also) decreasing,'' Prasong lamented. "We can see it from the decline in number of critical broadcasters as well.''

Against this backdrop, media professionals led by the TJA have been demanding faster media reform in accordance with Article 40 of the 1997 Constitution. The Constitution provides that broadcast frequencies, for decades owned by the state, be re-allocated on the basis of public interest.

Likewise, while national and local newspapers and the broadcast media are facing new threats, alternative media have been developing a stronger voice.

Since 2000, over 100 community radio stations have been established by different groups throughout the country as a response to the opportunity provided by the Constitution. Hundreds of local cable television channels in the provinces are now providing news to local audiences.

An alternative

This is not to say that alternative media have not been having their own problems, because government agencies have been trying to close some community stations.

But although the legal status of community radio and some local cable television channels is still unclear, media experts say it is emerging as an alternative to a media increasingly vulnerable to control.

"Local cable televisions have much more audiences than national cable television companies. They also provide alternative news that don't have airtime on national television, and reach areas that are not explored by national broadcasting media," said Boonsong Nimsritrakul of the Thai Cable Television Association.

Journalists and media experts seem to agree that the old way of fighting dictatorship and open threats to media is no longer suitable for the current kind of political control. Attempts to look for alternative media and means of communication have begun.

"I believe that a strong network of media professionals that can sustain itself without attachment to power or influence helps," argued Takeng of the Thai Broadcasters Association. "This is what professional associations like the Thai Journalists Association or Thai Broadcasters' Association are trying to do at the moment.'' - IPS