Thai journalists further lambasted the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Wednesday for trying to muzzle one of Asia's freest presses.
The Thai Broadcast Journalists Association demanded that government agencies "immediately stop acts of harassment and interference in press freedom."
Veteran journalist Suthichai Yoon claimed in an editorial in the English-language newspaper The Nation that Thaksin's aides are "undertaking a vigorous campaign to ensure remarks not favorable to him are pre-empted or taken off radio and television programs."
The comments were in response to recent government moves against media outlets critical of a Constitutional Court decision to drop corruption charges against Thaksin.
On Monday, the police department's Special Branch sent a letter to the Thai business daily Krungthep Turakij calling its decision to print a foreign news agency report about the court case as "irresponsible" and a threat to stability.
The newspaper published a Reuters report that seven of the Constitutional Court's 15 judges had said that Thaksin was likely to be banned from politics for 16 months if the court found him guilty of concealing assets. The court acquitted Thaksin 8-7 on Aug. 3.
The Thai Journalists Association, to which nearly all print media belong, and the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association, which includes almost all major broadcast media, issued statements Tuesday condemning the police warning.
The broadcasters group also protested police warnings to a radio station which had reported on the Thaksin case. "Such an action clearly contradicts the right to speak and write freely as stated in the Constitution," the group said.
Most radio stations and all but one of Thailand's six broadcast television channels are state-owned. The lone private television station, ITV, is partially owned by Shin Corp, a holding company controlled by Thaksin's family. The company has been accused of editorial interference in the station's news coverage.
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