At a leading television station, the censor’s scissors stand ready to snip out any reference to Thailand’s ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra or members of his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai) party. “You cannot quote a press statement by Thaksin word for word or even what his party releases,” Clare Patchimanon, a news anchor on a morning current affairs programme for Channel Three TV, said. “There is an editorial policy to be careful about what goes on the air.” Since last week she and other radio and TV broadcasters have come under pressure from the country’s junta to restrict local media exposure to Thaksin, who was ousted in the Sep. 19, military coup. The bluntness of the junta’s order conveyed its new, tough stance in dealing with the former, twice-elected leader, who has been forced to live in exile.

“I want to ask every television channel and every radio station not to broadcast messages or statements of the former prime ministers and leaders of the past ruling party,” General Winai Phattiyakul, a high-ranking member of the junta, told media representatives on Jan. 10. “If they don’t listen,” he added, “you can kick them out of your station or if you can’t use your judgement, I will use mine to help you run your station.”

As junta has dropped its mask of appearing benign, it is also losing friends. Sections of the local print media that welcomed the country’s 18th coup as a chance to restore Thai democracy that Thaksin had undermined are not so sure now. “We are not very happy with this meddling. The Thai press has expressed its displeasure,” says Kiatichai Pongpanich, senior editor of Khaosod, a Thai-language daily. “This is not a very normal situation.” Human rights groups are also firing broadsides at the junta, pointing that its menacing approach to the local broadcasters goes against the pledges it had made to justify the putsch, among which was a promise to help restore Thai democracy from the abuse it had suffered during Thaksin’s five-year government.

“We are concerned by this disturbing trend to control the broadcast media,” Sunai Phasuk, Thai researcher for the global rights lobby, Human Rights Watch, said. “This is counterproductive to the promise they made to introduce a democratic culture.” The uproar over the limits placed on the broadcast medium - the news outlets with the largest in the country - has overshadowed the increasing restrictions on websites.

The junta’s expanding campaign against the Thai media is being viewed by analysts here as one more self-inflicted wound as it appears to be losing its way in a political environment that is growing increasingly fragile. Four months after it took power, the junta has succeeded in creating more dissension and divisiveness - an atmosphere it had pledged to end through a coup that was aimed at unifying this South-east Asian country.

“Since the coup, government censorship has only focused on breaking communication channels between Thaksin and the Thai people,” Philippe Latour, South-east Asia representative for Reporters Without Borders, the global media watchdog, said. “Censorship, whatever the motives behind it, is against all democratic principles and it is shocking when it comes from a government that promised to bring back democracy within 12 months.” — IPS