Abhisit promises liberal media laws

BANGKOK: Determined to reclaim its position as a country that values press freedom the most in Asia, Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva vowed to push for media protection laws.

Speaking before editors from Asian countries, media entities and guests at the 10th anniversary of Asia News Network (ANN) on Friday, Abhisit said proposed liberal media laws are underway.

ANN is an alliance of 20 newspapers in 17 countries and the biggest media alliance in terms of readership.

Among the laws being prepared are the amendment of the official information law to make information more accessible to the public, the enactment of the law on the protection of media professionals and a policy on regulating the electronic media.

"Ten years ago, when Thailand looked at the freedom of the media table, we were right up there among the best. We used to claim that we were the region's best in terms of providing freedom for the media. These days, we look at the countries below us because we have fallen down and slipped down in this media table of freedom considerably in the last decade," he said.

ASIA NEWS NETWORK

(China Daily 03/07/2009 page11)