The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) plans to convene more than 200 domestic and foreign journalists and ask them not to ask Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha or other ministers difficult questions.
The meeting between journalists, military and the politicians will soon take place at the National Police Headquarters. Lt Gen Suchart Pongput wants "constructive questions" to be asked and the reporters not to distort the facts. According to Suchart, Prayut reads the newspapers every day to see what is being written about him.
Suchart does say that the government would like to build a healthy relationship with the media. He admitted that at previous press meetings there were unpleasant confrontations that are to be regretted.
Prayut has a short fuse when it comes to journalists. For example, he once threw a banana peel at a journalist, which annoyed him. Nevertheless, the prime minister says that critical TV channels or newspapers will not be shut down. Incidentally, PeaceTV, a channel for red shirts, was taken off the air. According to Prayut, not by his order, but by a decision of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.
Source: Bangkok Post – http://goo.gl/pf3UES
I thought he was no longer in the military and held political/public office. Critical questions are part of this type of position. It keeps you sharp and you stay in touch with the world/audience you work for. Regulating the kind of questions that may or may not be asked is a characteristic of a totalitarian regime and does not fit with the picture that Prayuth and cs are trying to paint of his/their regime.
My advice to him and cs is therefore: Stop whining about the critics and concentrate on improving your/your policy in response to those criticisms.
I understand Prayuth very much, sometimes the questions asked are of an unimaginable level of stupidity.
The proverb that "1 fool can ask more questions than 1000 wise men can answer" is a perfect illustration of the Thai question content
Also a fitting quote from a man known in the west as a very intelligent person, Albert Einstein, quote "Infinite is the universe and infinite is the stupidity of mankind, but about the universe I am not very sure."
Prayut is of course still a soldier mentally, so a totalitarian person. How else?
5555555 (whahahaha)
Is this a piece of the Thai equivalent of the Speld? Can't help it because this is just humor from the top shelf (or terribly wrong...).
In a good relationship with the press and good journalism, there is plenty of room for critical questions. If the relationship is really great, you also go into that as much as possible and otherwise you avoid the questions with "I can not say anything about that at the moment, nor admit or deny it".
What is asked here and how Prayut responds are practices that belong to a dictatorial regime. Not with friends who work together for a better (Thai) country.
I just remembered this striking joke and immediately useful for readers who don't know De Speld:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ7rhtp5p7Y
- http://speld.nl/2013/01/15/nederland-vanaf-1-februari-een-dictatuur/
(yourself video if the video did not load properly in 1 of the 2)
Is this Thailand or North Korea?
This is real Thailand. Probably never been to North Korea. North Korea is 100% worse.
Never compare Thailand to North Korea if you have no experience with it.
No ( dictator ) anywhere in the world likes difficult questions .
Now I am NOT saying that Prayuth is a dictator.
But if you don't like difficult questions, what do you like?
Praise singing and questions uttered with honey around the mouth and with praise trumpet.
If you want to be head of government , you have to be able to take a beating .
Putin, the Russian leader, also does not like difficult questions.
Prime ministers and government leaders who can not stand this . May I therefore immediately start looking for another job.
Maybe his old job as General and Commander-in-Chief of the Thai Army wasn't so bad for him.
Jan Beute.
Yes, this way it will never work out with Thailand questions okay but not too difficult. The prime minister as he calls himself is starting to look more and more like the Putins and Erdogans of this world, they are also prime ministers and not dictators….
It's such a small mess and then it's so difficult to deal with it, no seriously, he has all but also all the characteristics of a dictator and they will have to kick him off his plush like all dictators, but apparently there are a lot of Dutchmen on it the blog that sons think it's cool. Not in any case