Thai protesters stormed a satellite TV station yesterday, overruning an army barricade and forcing their TV channel back on air in the first major confrontation of a three-day state of emergency.
Security forces fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters, who climbed over rolls of barbed wire and forced open the gate of the compound, holding it for about three hours in defiance of an emergency decree on the 27th day of anti-government street protests seeking new elections.
Most of the soldiers pulled back from the Thaicom PCL satellite station about 60km north of Bangkok, leaving the grounds under the control of the “red shirt” protesters, supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006.
Authorities entered the station a day earlier and seized equipment that took the People Channel station off air, saying it was inciting violence. Other channels were not affected.
“We want our TV back. You cannot shut our eyes and ears,” Jatuporn Prompan, a red shirt leader, said from the back of a truck after leading the protesters into the compound.
Broadcasts resumed after talks between police and protest leaders, prompting the crowd to disperse. However, it was not immediately clear how long the broadcasts would stay on. The government has said the channel incites violence.
“If they distort information again, we will have to take measures against it,” government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said.
The protesters, who briefly besieged parliament on Wednesday, seized guns, batons, shields, bullets and tear gas canisters from police and soldiers and displayed them at the station.
A Reuters photographer earlier saw a policeman hitting a protester with the butt of a rifle in the commotion.
Fourteen protesters, three police and a soldier were wounded, a medical center said. One protester was wounded, most likely from a rubber bullet. Others had minor scrapes.
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