Thai tabloids lurch between lurid and deferential
Posted: Thursday, June 11, 2009 2:23 PM
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Bangkok, Thailand
By NBC News' Warangkana Chomchuen
BANGKOK – Thailand’s media is a complicated morass of contradictions.
A constitutional monarchy, the country has draconian laws that restrict and prohibit publishing or broadcasting materials deemed insulting or offensive to the monarchy.
But when it comes to reporting dramatic crimes, especially those involving sex and violence, all hell breaks loose. Crime reporting is so detailed that it tends to the gaudy and salacious, the death of David Carradine being the most recent example of over-the-top coverage.
In contrast, century-old lèse majesté ("injured majesty") laws mean that Thai media most often exercises self-censorship and is extremely cautious when it comes to covering the monarchy, military, judiciary or other politically sensitive issues. The codes say that whoever defames, insults or threatens the monarchy is punishable by a sentence of three to 15 years imprisonment (though royal pardons are usually granted after conviction).
Carradine most definitely did not receive the royal treatment. Thai Rath, Thailand’s best-selling daily newspaper, published a grisly photo of the actor on its front page last week. The photo, though pixilated to hide some of his nudity, shows Carradine hanging by rope inside a closet.
Carradine’s family was outraged and their lawyer threatened to sue any other media outlet that published the photo. But criticism of the coverage from Thai readers was minimal.
A form of political control
Meanwhile, even comparatively tame reporting on the Thai monarchy can be met with severe punishment. In recent years dozen of Thais and foreigners have been convicted of violating lèse majesté laws, ranging from an Australian who wrote a couple of lines about the crown prince in his self-published book to a drunken Swiss defacing portraits of the king to local activists and academics engaged in public debate and discussion.
In addition, lèse majesté charges are a convenient device for the powers that be to eliminate political adversaries. (And because the press can’t reprint comments or materials subject to lèse majesté, no one actually knows what was said and done to "damage the monarchy.") They are even used for regime change: Citing disrespect for the king was one of the reasons the military used to justify staging a coup against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006.
It all means that news about the Thai royals consists mostly of items about ceremonies and charity events.
‘If it bleeds, it leads’
Contrasting this is the crime coverage of the million-plus circulation Thai Rath and several other dailies. Female rape victims are often hounded by reporters for their stories and are asked to recount their attacks in morbid detail. And although rape victims are often identified by aliases, not their real names, their addresses are often published.
There is not much recourse. Bringing lawsuits is both expensive and complicated, and suing media outlets for liable for publishing personal information is not a part of Thai culture. Instead, we live in a "mai pen rai" or "never mind" culture that opens the door for media outlets to violate people’s privacy.
Carradine is not the first person to have his privacy violated by the Thai press, and likely won’t be the last.
