Surayud, Wants, Press, Help, Society

Tom has kindly translated Surayud's criticisms of the press in his latest post:

If [the press] looks only at negative things [and] doesn’t present good things to the society, the society will be in trouble. Dr. Prawese Wasi told me that if the story is negative, [it] appears in the press, if it’s positive, [the press] must be paid to cover it. So the press should look at itself and think of what it can do to help the society.

COMMENT: Tom gives his comments on the whole issue as well as Thai Rath's sycophantic response to Surayud's criticism of the press. Go have a read.

The Nation has joined in the party with an editorial on Surayud's criticism and it is typical of what is wrong with the paper:

Compared with Thaksin Shinawatra's well-known mindset that any journalist attacking him was unpatriotic, Surayud's comments could be considered top class.
...
But Prawase's good-news bad-news analysis was dead wrong and Surayud must not believe him. Contrary to what Prawase said, the Thai media are hungry for good news nowadays, especially political. In fact, the coup-makers and the new government have been given a big break by the Thai press. That they bitterly "accepted" the coup alone - something that the international community struggles to understand even today - should be the best possible news for the Surayud government and the Council for National Security (CNS).
...
It was a free media that helped expose Thaksin. In those days he too complained about overwhelming "negativity" in political news reports. He also called for the press to make a "constructive" contribution to the country. While Thaksin did it in quite a rude way, the core message might not be that different from Surayud's.

COMMENT: So if Thaksin had politely criticised the media, would The Nation lavishly call his criticism "top class"? I doubt it. As Tom states it would have been called media interference if Thaksin had uttered those words, but then again similar statements by "respected individuals" in the past didn't attract the charge of media interference so I don't hold out much hope now.

I really can't see how Surayud can complain about media coverage of his government up until now. There is the odd critical story of Surayud and the coup leaders, but even The Nation admits the government has "been given a big break by the Thai press". That is putting it nicely. Imagine if Surayud was faced with a media empire (print, radio, television, and internet presence) dedicated to the overthrow of your government which included making up the most outlandish conspiracy theories, I wonder what Surayud would say then.

Nevertheless, the coup leaders have their own answer to the media criticism. They are setting up a new PR division "to inform [the] public about its achievement". I wonder whether Surayud would call this propaganda.