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[Sexpat]

Do you remember all that talk about how the new constitution would be opening Thailand's mass media to independent control and public participation ? Read on.........

"Media advocates, academics, consumer-rights groups and press associations have slammed the Frequency Allocation Organisation Bill, saying it shuts the public out of participation and gives authority to the Cabinet to hand-pick candidates to serve on the National Broadcasting Commission.

Eighteen organisations representing a broad range of media professionals, academics, consumer-rights activists and press associations have sent out a strong signal that they oppose the bill, which was approved by the Cabinet on June 10.The bill is scheduled for debate in Parliament today and is expected to be law before the end of this year.

The 18 organisations have argued that the bill has been drafted without public participation, although it will have a far-reaching impact on the broadcast industry worth several hundreds of billions of baht. More importantly, they said the National Broadcasting Commission, an independent agency set up to regulate the broadcast industry and allocate frequencies, would not be independent as the Cabinet would reserve the right to hand-pick members.

Initially, the Senate was supposed to confirm the appointment of members. The bill also removes the right of the public to own at least 20 per cent of the frequencies and opens the way for community radio to become profit-oriented under the control of local administration organisations. . ."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/06/18...es_30075790.php