Journalists. Police. Academics. Judicial actors. Who can promote safety of journalists and freedom of expression in Thailand?

It was an afternoon class at Thailand’s prestigious Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, in late March 2024. About 20 students majoring in Communication Arts lined up at the starting point. At the opposite end of the room, a wall was full of papers scribbled with career goals, which the students had written earlier that afternoon and mounted on the wall. Lying on the floor in front of them, piles of paper with various gender-related factors that could obstruct a student’s chosen career journey lay before them. Following the instructions of the workshop leader, the students had identified, written and categorized these obstacles variously as they might typically apply to men, to women, or to LGBTIQ+ persons. 

 

It was time for the final reckoning, as the students were now instructed to—at the start of a timer—to hurriedly search for their ‘obstacles’ in the piles of paper, scramble to the wall, fetch their career goal sheet hanging there, and swiftly return to the starting point—all within 25 seconds while nearly holding their breath. When the time was up, a majority had completed the challenge successfully; however, some were still on their way back to the starting point, or even worse, on their initial way to the wall—and all of them were women.
 

As it quickly became clear to all that day’s workshop participants—many will be launching a career in the media industry upon graduation—women still face greater challenges than men in pursuing their career goals. One key challenge is the widespread prevalence of gender stereotypes, such as the assumption that women are not to be taken as seriously as men, or that they are comparatively too emotional to work in a hard-nosed newsroom—or even that they are simply unfit for certain jobs. ‘Executives of television stations [have often] said that women were not strong enough to hold a television camera, and they are not the best fit in this technology-driven industry’, said Dr Chanettee Tinnam, a lecturer in the  Faculty of Communication Arts, as she displayed the percentage of women in journalism careers in Thailand and shared the findings of her study, of 2015, with regional television stations. 

Dr Tinnam, who commonly researches and runs gender-sensitive journalism workshops, went on to reveal even more shocking findings on the safety of women in journalism. These findings pertained to various acts of sexual violence perpetrated on women in regional newsrooms, including verbal harassment, sexting, voyeurism, exhibitionism and sexual harassment. She then went on to introduce to her students the UNESCO Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media, which the class agreed remained relevant, even though they were first established roughly a decade ago.

 

Expanding outwards from the Chulalongkorn workshop to Thailand’s nearby Nakhon Pathom Province, several hundred police cadets were assembled at Thailand’s Royal Police Cadet Academy, participating under a scorching sun in a tactical training on crowd control. One group of cadets played the part of demonstrators, another of crowd control police, and yet another of journalists. The mock demonstrators, or ‘protesters’, were shouting and throwing water-filled plastic bags at the police, who raised plastic shields in self-defence, while taking up different formations to gain control of the mayhem. As the demonstration escalated, with no abatement of the chaos apparently imminent, the police employed a water cannon from a nearby fire truck to disorient and disperse the crowd. As might be expected, that action abruptly concluded the exercise. 

 

Pol Lt Col Anupong Limsiri, a cadet trainer who had earlier attended a UNESCO training on international standards on freedom of expression and the safety of journalists, was eager to share his perspective on the scenario, noting, ‘Trainers and cadets always exchange their views after every exercise, regardless of the roles they take. This is to ensure that cadets know what they should do. If they understand, they will not obstruct journalists doing their jobs.’ He added that the UNESCO training had proved helpful, especially given that real-life journalists were invited to join the sessions, ultimately helping both police and journalists to exchange perspectives and better understand their mutual professional roles in such dramatic circumstances. 

The four-day training in 2022 was led by international experts and gathered several dozen police officers, police cadet trainers, and ten journalists to discuss the role of law enforcement actors in respecting—and even fostering—freedom of expression, all the while ensuring the safety of journalists in the course of fulfilling their critically important duty to maintain public order. The final day of training had included a role-playing scenario of demonstration and crowd control. Mr Mongkol Bangprapa, a former president of the Thai Journalists Association, who was present, echoed the perspective of the police cadet trainer, in noting, ‘I also observed the training on the safety of journalists. The trainers provided both the police and journalists with theoretical tools which are very useful.’

 

When asked for her opinion of the exercises, Ms Gita Sabharwal, UN Resident Coordinator to Thailand from early 2020 to April 2024, who had actively pushed for continuity in such UNESCO training for security forces, commented, 'Leadership on freedom of expression lies with UNESCO, which brings many UN agencies together including OHCHR, UNODC, UN Women and UNICEF.’ She added, ‘Freedom of expression is one of the accelerators for the Sustainable Development Goals', as she underscored the importance of freedom of expression, the right to assembly, and the safety of journalists as high priorities of the Resident Coordinator’s Office.

 

Nevertheless, while insisting on freedom of expression and the safety of journalists, the media faces additional challenges. As Mr Bangprapa noted, ‘At present, the fact-checking mechanism for the media in Thailand is not strong enough, and not many people care about it. News plagiarism is also rampant in the media.’ Mr Kavi Chongkittavorn, a veteran journalist and a UNESCO long-term interlocutor, seconded to Mr Bangprapa’s remarks, adding, ‘A proper fact-checking mechanism is needed...[at a time] when information is overloaded, [and] while media agencies are competing for engagement and trying to make money. Some resort to sensationalizing or dramatizing [the] news.’ 

 

Speaking on professionalism, Mr Vipon Kititasnasorchai, Director of Criminal Law Research and Justice Development of Nitivajra Institute, thoughtfully remarked, ‘Journalists should take pride in their profession. We should raise more awareness and [cultivate] a change of mindset with people in the profession first, then [with] the public.' For his legal profession, with Mr Kititasnasorchai functioning as the key coordinator, UNESCO and Nitivajra Institute co-hosted a training workshop in 2022 for public prosecutors in Thailand on the investigation and prosecution of crimes against journalists, as well as the protection of freedom of expression. Nitivajra Institute also translated English guidelines into Thai for regional prosecutors assigned to cases of crimes against journalists. Hard copies of the publication were distributed to over 4,000 public prosecutors across the country. 

Speaking on the impact, Mr Kititasnasorchai noted, ‘Freedom of expression is closely related to the criminal justice system in the sense that we should rely on truth. We need [to ensure] the free flow of information. We need to communicate why freedom of expression is so important. Without freedom of expression, we may not have civilisation at all.’

#FreedomOfExpression #SafetyOfJournalists #MediaDevelopment