Dr. Patcharee Siroros Theerapat Ungsuchaval
Public participatory policy process in the Establishment of the Thai Public Broadcasting Service1 Dr. Patcharee Siroros2 Theerapat Ungsuchaval3
Abstract The establishment of the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (ThaiPBS) is considered to be the f irst and only successful achievement of the Thai public service broadcasting reform during the time of General Surayud Chulanont’s government (2006-2007). Its success can be seen from the high degree of citizen participation and support in the bill drafting process and the ThaiPBS establishing process. Having learned from the public service broadcasting experiences of several countries, Thai policy makers, led by appointed technocratic ministers, worked closely with several think tank institutions and civil groups to write a Thai Public Broadcast Service Act which became a legal framework for building the ThaiPBS. The policy making process, both bill drafting and the ThaiPBS establishment, was designed to involve citizens through organizing public consultation forums all over the country. The inputs from this participation had been integrated into the bill draft and legitimized the ThaiPBS institution building process. The three-pillar strategy of knowledge, social participation and movement, and political engagement were utilized to mobilize support for the process. This case study will focus on how the three key policy actors: appointedtechnocratic ministers, think tank institutes, and civil groups worked together through the participatory policy making process to push the ThaiPBS bill draft and help build up a new public television station. Keywords: Public participation, Public policy, Thai Public Broadcasting Service Paper presented of the International Conference for Case Studies on Development Administration 2012 (NIDA-ICCS 2012). We would like to thank Dr. Hamish Morrison for editing this paper. 2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University. 3 Executive Assistant of the Family Media Watch Network, an active advocate for ThaiPBS 1
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Introduction In the f irst decade of the twenty-f irst century, Thai society underwent many drastic changes after the promulgation of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand 1997, which designed new-type organizations, many of which were independent organization following the ideas of the new-constitutionalism and rule of law. These structural changes deeply affected the existing organizations, especially media-related organizations. The emerging Public Broadcasting Service Organization, a type of public media, ref lected the transformation towards democratization in this society. Public media as mentioned earlier was conducted in the form of public television. In this paper the authors want to focus on the establishment of the ThaiPBS, the f irst Thai public television station in which civil groups worked in collaboration with appointed-technocratic ministers and think tank institutes to push the policy process. The paper will be divided into three parts: policy context before the establishment of ThaiPBS, media reform and the origin of the ThaiPBS, and the role of the civil groups as policy advocates for ThaiPBS.
Policy context before the ThaiPBS In Thailand before 1992 all television stations were under the government control. Under this condition the state could select or censor the news programs to ensure that the program presentation would follow official policies. After the 1992 Black May political crisis, many Thai citizens became aware of the freedom that they felt they were entitled to gain access to fair information. It was believed that media liberalization under market mechanisms should facilitate the media to do their job and keep autonomy. Prime Minister Anan Panyarachun understood this problem and came up with an idea of founding a free television station. This led to an idea of media liberalization based on a framework created by the Government Media Improvement Committee. In the next administration under Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai a UHF 1 station was established under supervision of the Office of the Prime Minister Secretary (OPM). This was the establishment of the Independent Television (ITV). 380
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The concessionaire from the bidding in 1994 was the Siam TV and Communication group which later registered as Siam Infotainment Co. Ltd. to manage ITV. A concession condition that made it different from others was that the ITV programs had to consist of news and documentaries no less than 70% of the time and shareholders, who were juristic persons, could hold no more than 10% of the shares in order to prevent the monopoly. ITV became a new hope of people for receiving accurate news without distortion. In 1997 ITV was confronted with an economic crisis which affected their ability to pay for the concession fee and this led to an amendment of the contract in April 2000. The amendment allowed the shareholders to hold more than 10% and the new majority shareholder was the Shin Corporation Public Co. Ltd., a business group with strong political connections to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinnawatra. The Shin Group used legal power and advertisements to force the changing of the proportion of documentary and entertainment programs from 70:30 to 50:50 in 2003. The change led to internal conflicts in ITV between the new administration under Shin leadership and the so-called ‘ITV rebel’. The change also caused conflict between ITV and the OPM. The issue was brought to arbitration which gave a verdict to permit ITV to change the program structure and instructed the OPM to reduce the concession fee to 230 million baht, in addition to paying a compensation fee for ITV. However, the OPM disagreed with the verdict and brought the case to the administrative court. On 13th December 2006, during Prime Minister General Surayut Chulanont’s government, the supreme administrative court overruled the arbitration verdict and forced ITV to pay a huge f ine and deferred a remaining concession fee amounting to 100, 000 million baht to the OPM. It was obvious that ITV was unable to pay the fine and this led the OPM to revoke the concession, terminating all programs and transfering the ITV broadcasting rights to the Government Public Relations Department (PRD). In 7th March 2007 the former ITV was changed to become a new television station, named Thailand Independent Television (TITV). Such incidents showed the possibility of political interventions in the running of ITV that could take place via government and capitalist mechanisms and this increased the demand for public television. In 19th
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September 2006 there was a military coup and the coup leaders played a key role in pushing for the f irst proper public television station in Thailand. The cabinet decision to terminate the contract for collaboration and the operation of the UHF radio and television stations between the OPM and ITV forced the government to find a solution for managing ITV in the future. In 13th March 2007 the cabinet adopted a temporarily measure to founding a TITV management station as a special delivery unit (SDU) within the Public Relations Department. Long-term measures were adopted and several public hearings were carried out on the issue of the future of public television.
Media reform and the movement for ThaiPBS The 1997 constitution was considered to be the first legal framework to address clearly issues concerning the new direction of the media. This can be seen from section 40 which stated; “Transmission frequencies for radio or television broadcasting and radio telecommunication are national communication resources for public interest. There shall be an independent regulatory body having the duty to distribute the frequencies under paragraph one and supervise radio or television broadcasting and telecommunication businesses as provided by law. In carrying out the act under paragraph two, regard shall be had to utmost public benef it at national and local levels in education, culture, state security, and other public interests including fair and free competition.� The above clauses illustrated at least two important points that are related to our case study: the transmission frequencies were public resources and a national mass media system would be operated for public interest purposes. People started talking about the concept of establishing public television and this would be a major reform in Thai media history. Obviously the idea had been influenced from the experiences of broadcasters in several other countries such as the BBC in England, NHK in Japan, and PBS in the U.S.A.
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Several movements for public television emerged. The National Health Foundation (NHF), with f inancial support from the Thai Health Promotion Organization (THPO), raised the issue of founding a public television station for children and family. The THPO also sponsored the Thailand Development and Research Institute (TDRI) to organize public forums on a guideline to establish a Thai public television. In 13th March 2007 Dr.Somkiat Tangkitvanich, a researcher at the TDRI, released a report on the feasibility and guidelines of founding a Thai public television station for children and family based on the information, ideas, and recommendations collected from stakeholders and networks. In addition, the TDRI proposed a legal foundation for a public broadcasting services bill. The summary of the seminar was submitted to the government that was struggling for a solution to the ITV problem. The essence of the proposal was to push for a public television station in Thailand by undertaking two major stages: a push for the public broadcasting act and the establishment of a new public television station or converting an existing television station into a public station. The most likely choice would be to convert Channel 11 or TITV to become a public television station. The temporary situation of converting TITV was the appropriate choice as it could create a guarantee for a sustainable public television station in the future. However, in 16th March 2007 Kunying Tipawadee Meksawan, Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Off ice which had jurisdiction over ITV, set up a committee to listen to public opinion on the future of TITV and to organize forums over the country to collect ideas and opinions from various groups, networks, and organizations. Two strategies for TITV direction were proposed for consideration: rethinking the relationship between public television and independent television, and listening to public opinion which had to be done within one month. The organizers clarif ied the def inition of the two terms with their different management styles to prevent any public confusion. On the 5th April 2007 a listening to public opinion forum was launched at the Public Relations Department. The result was that the participants wanted to have both public and independent television stations. Before this, on the 30th March 2007, the National Health Foundation, Social Management College, and Civil Organization on Selected Issues
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organized a public forum on “Public television: a knowledge frontline for citizens?” to educate people and push the issue into government decision making. After the listening to public opinion forum, the advocates for the public television and independent television choices organized activities to gain public support. Somkiat Tangkitvanij’s, of the TDRI, comparative study of the choices, was followed by other researchers such as Thitinan Pongsudhirak and Weekayut Kanchuchat (2003, 2005), on the similar theme. In addition to the study, there were several public conferences on the topic. One example was an international workshop on “Doing public television: experiences and lessons on how to make it work,” in 2007 with cooperation with the UNESCO, Japan NHK, Australia ABC and several advocating organizations in Thailand. The information, ideas, opinions, choices from the panels, forums, and studies were brought to the cabinet for consideration. The decision was reached on the 24th April 2007 to convert TITV to be a public service television station, to set up an UHF broadcasting management organization to implement public television, and to draft a legal bill on public television. In early 2008 the cabinet appointed a study group for drafting a public broadcasting service organization bill. The group used a draft based on the study report of Somkiat Tangkitvanich and added the views and suggestions of lawyers, scholars, and experts to develop a bill draft to submit to the cabinet. On the 15 th May 2007 they approved a principle of the “Thai Public Broadcasting Service Act, B.E….” This reflected a major step of collaboration between scholars, civil groups, and state sectors to work together to push the bill after a decade of hard work. Then, in 18 th July 2007, the National Legislative Assembly of Thailand (NLAT) approved the public TV bill concept by considering the government’s draft and then appointed 22 persons called “Select Committee on Thai Public Broadcasting Service Act …” including the representatives of the NLAT, the academic sector and civil groups, which had advocated the policy. During the time taken to consider the bill, the select committee provided the opportunity for people who demanded the right to express their opinions by opening the website “http://tpbs.pdc.go.th” in order that they could inform the public about progress and hear more public opinion. Also, the civil groups operated activities to encourage the bill. On the other 384
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hand, there was some resistance from group who lost their benef it from the prior arrangements. This policy-process was a time of signif icant competition to frame and seize policy opportunities by various interest groups. As a result, in 14th January 2008, the Thai Public Broadcasting Service Act 2008 was promulgated in the Royal Thai government gazette and implemented from 15th January on. The properties, debts, management rights, frequency and the like of TITV were immediately transferred to Thai Public Broadcasting Service (ThaiPBS), which was the first non-profit public media organization broadcasting in order to support the moral social development of Thailand with useful documentaries and news. Initially, the establishment of the ThaiPBS could not be claimed to be a completely success because there were no broadcasting service with diverse programs and neither was the organization and necessarily infrastructure for running the television station. On 15th January 2008 the cabinet appointed an ad hoc policy committee of the public broadcasting service organization consisting of five people to run the organization until a legitimate policy committee had been appointed.
The role of the civil society policy networks as public television policy advocates Before the public television became a controversial public issue in 2007, there had been a movement to push the issue by several civil policy networks that worked together in a loose coalition. The main groups were Child Media Program, Foundation for Child Development, Family Network Foundation, Family Media Watch Network, Kid-Journalist Volunteer Network-Pineapple Eye Ranger, Media Creative Producer for Child and Family Network, We Are Happy Group, New Media Network, Alternative Media Network, Radio for Kids Group, and the Institute Thai Press Development Foundation, Civil Media Development Institute. These groups with their sub-networks countrywide shared common ideas and beliefs on good public media development. They frequently collaborated in organizing activities related to public media although these were quite minor affairs. When the public television had become a hot issue in 2007, these groups, as policy advocates, actively participated in proposing ideas about public television legal frameworks in discussions, public forums
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and meetings. They became more active after the 24th April 2007 cabinet decision, especially during the period when the public television draft law was under the consideration of the National Legislative Assembly of Thailand. The groups advocated the law on the ground that it would lead to change in Thai society in the direction of more ‘open’ and ‘neutral’ (without control or domination by any power groups). It was a belief that a solid legal framework for public television would lead Thailand to be a knowledgeable and participatory society (Khemporn Virumrapan, 2008, 14) To strengthen its position these groups expanded their networks by being allied with other partners such as the National Institute for Child and Family Development, Mahidol University, and networks from the academic community such as Ramkhamhaeng, Burapha, Rajabhat Suan Sunanta, Chiangmai, Mahasarakham, Rangsit, Phuket Rajabhat, Dhurakij Pundit, St. John’s, Bangkok, Sripatum, and Rajabhat Jankasem universities. The new networks renamed themselves, “Friends of Public Television Networks.” One strategy of the Friends of Public Television Networks was to submit letters to the government to rush the policy process. For instance, they submitted a letter to Khun Ying Tipawadee to ask for her support for public television (Unya-orn and Theerapat, 2010). The Friends of Public Television Networks also used strategies to advocate their position. One was to organize activities in cooperation with other sectors to push the law draft. The most important strategy was the public forum on ‘Public hearing program contents for public television’ with 17 other partners on the 11th January 2008 to give recommendations on style and direction of public television to a committee on preparedness of public participation in public television. After the 2008 ThaiPBS act, as mentioned earlier although the ThaiPBS act was promulgated it was initially unable to broadcasting properly. The cabinet was in the process of appointing the policy committee to operate the organization. The appointed ad hoc policy committee thought it might be a good idea to have a process to hear public opinion and collect public ideas, opinions, and recommendations about the future ThaiPBS direction, program developments, and operation. The ThaiPBS broadcasted twelve live-programs and also organized nine public forums for nine
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regions all over the country to collect information from government (national and local), academics, citizens, and television producers in March-April 2008 (see Appendix B). The questions and issues to be discussed in the forums were: origin and def inition of public television, how ThaiPBS would be utilized to generate benef its for the society, how ThaiPBS could enhance social equality, how to develop collaboration between ThaiPBS and citizens, and how to maintain and sustain public television in Thai society. In 2008, the Friends of Public Television Networks, in collaboration with think tank institutions and other civil groups, also organized public forums to educate citizens about public television and citizen participation to propose guidelines for desirable television programs (see Appendix C). It has been four years since January 2008 when ThaiPBS began broadcasting. ThaiPBS has quickly earned a distinctive place in the Thai broadcasting industry with its bold and independent news reporting and wide range of thought-provoking and knowledge-building programs. It has become the most trusted broadcaster during Thailand’s most critical times. It is obvious that the collaboration between the government, think tanks and civil groups to push the public television policy and broadcasting services contributed to today ThaiPBS’s success.
Analysis The ThaiPBS is a successful story. Several factors can be analyzed to assist us in understanding the reasons for this success. F irstly, overlapping sectors of civil society. It is noted that the collaboration between the civil groups, think tanks, and state sectors to work together was a key factor for effectively pushing public television and Public Broadcasting Services Act. Holloway (2001) calls this phenomenon as the overlapping area of three sectors of civil society: public, private, and citizen sectors.
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Figure 1 : A better view of civil society as the overlapping part of each of the three sectors of the state.
According to Holloway, the three sectors (public, private, and citizen) “………play different roles, means, motivation, benefits and so on, but they have a linkage structure that connecting each other all the time. The three sectors are not isolated from each other but overlap to some extent, as they work together to promote democratic ideals and governance. Therefore, the overlapping area represents the place where the strengths of the state, business and citizens join together to create a normative area of democracy, social responsibility and protection of the public good.” (Holloway, 2001: 6-7) In the ThaiPBS case, the overlapping sector of civil society can be seen in the following table:
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Table 1 : Policy actors who involved in the overlapping area of civil society. Public Sector
Private Sector
Citizen Sector
Office of the Prime Minister Secretary (OPM)
Media Creative Producer for Child and Family Network
National Health Foundation (NHF)
Government Public Relations Department (PRD)
New Media Network
Thailand Development and Research Institute (TDRI)
Thai Health Promotion Organization (THPO)
Alternative Media Network
Social Management College (NGOs)
Kunying Tipawadee Meksawan (Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office)
Radio for Kids group
Somkiat Tangkitvanij (TDRI’s researcher)
Committee on listening to public opinion on the future of TITV
Institute Thai Press Development Foundation
Child Media Program
National Legislative Assembly of Thailand
Civil Media Development Institute
Foundation for Child Development
National Institute for Child and Family
Network for Independent Producers
Family Network Foundation
National Institute for Child and Family Development, Mahidol University
Network of Commerce and Industry
Family Media Watch Network
Select Committee on Thai Public Broadcasting Service Act …
Kid-Journalist Volunteer Network-Pineapple Eye Ranger
Network of Local Administrative Unit
We Are Happy Group
Mass Communication and Journalism network
Friends of Public Television Networ Network for Consumers
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Table 1 : Policy actors who involved in the overlapping area of civil society. (Cont) Public Sector
Private Sector
Citizen Sector Teacher and Educational Personnel Network Labor Union Ramkhamhaeng University Burapha University Rajabhat Suan Sunanta University Chiangmai University Mahasarakham University Rangsit University Phuket Rajabhat University Dhurakij Pundit University St. John’s University Bangkok University Sripatum University Rajabhat Jankasem University
The three sectors led by a major think tank (TDRI) and citizen groups worked in a network by sharing information, organizing public forums, and advocating the public television issue. The networks became stronger when they could access the public sector led by Kunying Tipawadee Meksawan, the Minister of Prime Minister’s Office, who had jurisdiction over ITV and ThaiPBS. The overlapping of civil societies of these three sectors is considered the key factor in pushing for the ThaiPBS. It was neither established during a dictatorial government which never reflects the great power from below, nor pushed by the rulers or technicians who believed that they themselves knew more than others. Secondly, favorable political context. The ThaiPBS movement took place in 2007-2008 during the military government under Prime Minister General Surayud Chulanont (2006-2008). Most of the cabinet came from
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former technocrat-backgrounds and included bureaucrats such as Kunying Tipawadee. Under the military authoritarian regime, the military leaders invited experts and technocrats to run the economic and social policy. The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) was the only legislative body in which members were mostly technocrats, experts, military, and NGOs. Several NGOs that had advocated the issues of their interests outside became interested in sending their people to be NLA members or NLA commission members to push their issues. Public media was one of these. For instance, Somkiat Tangkitvanich, researcher of the TDRI had been interested in public media and had been doing research on this issue for a long time. After the coup in 2006 he was the one who strongly advocated the idea of public television in public forums and was involved actively in the NLA study group to push for ThaiPBS. With the favorable political context with a single legislative body and strong executives facilitated the ThaiPBS policymaking process effectively. Thirdly, policy learning and knowledge. We can say that the ThaiPBS establishment was set up using policy learning from other countries. According to Dolowitz and Marsh (2000, 5), policy learning is “…a similar process in which knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in one political setting (past or present) is used in the development of policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in another political setting.” In Thailand, public media was a foreign concept that media experts learned from other countries’ experiences. Public television was also a lesson drawn from England (BBC), US (PBS), and Japan (NHK). Media experts such as Somkiat, among others, mentioned about the foreign public televisions in his research and public discussions. The government used the foreign experience of public media set up the former ITV in the hope that it would be an independent television producing knowledge-building programs. ITV failed to achieve its mission and people started thinking about a new ThaiPBS. As this case study shows, the ThaiPBS idea had been influenced partly by policy learning from other countries and this made the ThaiPBS policy process tend to be more rational, evidence-based (foreign model and knowledge based on solid research). Less political policy process contributed to the PBS success.
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To summarize, the establishment of the Thai Public Broadcasting Service was a new and innovative policy phenomenon in Thailand. The participatory policy process pushed by the public, private, and citizen sectors in this case was extraordinary and should be a lesson-drawing for other diff icult public issues. As Kunying Tipawadee and Paiboon Wattanasiritham commented, “the ThaiPBS establishment was considered to be the best policy output of this government (Surayud) because it had changed crisis to opportunity which led to sustainable social benef its.” (Tipawadee Meksawan, 2010: 146; Paiboon Wattanasiritham, 2011: 185).
Bibliography Dolowitz, David P. and Marsh, David. (2000). Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy-Making. Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration, 13(1), 5-24. Holloway, Richard. (2001). Using The Civil Society Index: Assessing the Health of Civil Society A Handbook for Using the CIVICUS Index on Civil Society as a Self-Assessment Tool. CIVICUS. Khemporn Virunrapan (ed.) (2008). Child Media Program Booklet – Special Issue “Public Television.” Bangkok: Child Media Program. National Health Foundations. (2007a). Pra Sob Karn Lai Bot Rian Tho Ra Tas Sa Ta Ra Na: Tham Yhang Rai Hai Pra Sob Khaum Sum Rej. Bangkok: Pen Tai Publishing. __________. (2007b). Na Yo Bai Sa Ta Ra NA Puea Khun Na Pap Chee Wit Thee Dee: Sen Thang Pa Ti Rub Sue. BangKok: Pen Tai Publishing. Nithita Siripongtugsin. (2011). Politics in Public Media Policies of the Thai Public Broadcasting Service. NIDA Development Journal. 51(3), 117 139. Pattanan Wisessomwong. (2008.) Pat Ta Na Karn Lai Karn Zat Tang Tho Ra Tas Sa Ta Ra Na Haeg Raeg Khong Pra Tes Thai. Dissertation on master degree in Communication Arts, Dhurakij Pundit University. Paiboon Wattanasiritham. (2011). Kui Rueang…Chee Wit Tham Ma Da. Bangkok: Bizbook. Somkiat Tangkitvanich. (2007). Eek Ka Sarn Pra Kob Karn Tha Leang Khaw Kho Sa Neo Karn Zad Tung Sa Ta Nee Tho Ra Tas Sa Ta Ra Na, 13th March, NHF. __________. (2008). Bot Rean Zak Karn Plung Dun Hai Mee Thp Ra Tas Sa Ta Ra Na Nai Pra Tes Thai. Na Yo Bai Sa Ta Ra Na Puea Khun Na Pap Chee Wit Thee Dee: Kra Buan KArn Pat Ta Na Yhang 392
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Mee Suan Reaum. Bangkok: NHF, pp.33-35. Thai Public Broadcasting Service Act 2008. Thitinan Pongsudhirak and Weerayut Kanchuchat. (2003). Sue Sa Ta Ra Na. research sponsor by Thailand Research Fund (TRF). Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University. __________. (2005). Sue Sa Ta Ra Na : Yut Ta Sathr Sum Rub Pra Tes Thai. Rai Ngan Karn Suk Sa Rueang Sue Muan Chon Puea Karn Suk Sa Lae Karn Rian Ru 4. Bangkok: Strategy Project for Youth. Tipawadee Meksawan. (2010). Ban Thuek Rat Ta Mon Tree Ying. Bangkok: Bizbook. TDRI Report. (2007). Karn Zad Tang Throu Ra Tas Sa Ta Ra Na Nai Pra Tes Thai. 47(6) : Thailand Development Research Institute. TDRI. (2007). Karn Suk Sa Khaum Pen Pai Dai Lae Naue Thang Nai Karn Zad Tung Sa Ta Nee Tho Ra Tas Sum Rhub Dek Lae Krob Kreau. Research propose to National Health Foundation. Ubonrat Siriyuvasak. (2002). Media in the Age of Reform. Bangkok: Kobfai Publishing Project Unya-orn Panitpeungrat and Theerapat Ungsuchaval (eds.) (2010). Keb Rueang…Ma Khian Lau: Technique Kon LA Yut Lai Bot Rian Zak Karn Khub Khuean Na Yo Bai. Bangkok: Family Media Watch. Wipa Uutamachan. (1998). Sue Muan Chon Nai Yi Pun. Bangkok: Project for Academic Text Book of Faculty of Communication Arts Chulalongkorn University. __________. (2001.) Pa Ti Rub Sue Puea Sag Kom: Lhag Kid Lae Bot Rian Zak Na Na Pra Tes.. Project for Academic Text Book of Faculty of Communication Arts Chulalongkorn University.
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Appendix A: Chronology of Thai Public Broadcasting Service and some relevant events Year
Event
1992
Black May political crisis, Thai society became aware of the freedom to get information.
1994
The debut of Independent Television (ITV)
1997
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand 1997 was promulgated and Media Reform” concept had slowly solidified.
2000
The ITV’s contract was amended and became problematic.
2003
ITV was forced to change the proportion of documentary and entertainment programs by The Shin Group.
2006, December13th
The supreme administrative court forced the ITV to pay a fine and deferred a remaining concession fee.
2006, September 19th
Thailand had a military coup and then General Surayut Chulanont became the Prime Minister
2007, March 7th
ITV was changed to Thailand Independent Television (TITV).
2007, March 13th
-The cabinet had solutions including managing TITV as a special delivery unit within the Public Relations Department and setting public hearing mission on the issue of the future of TITV. - Dr.Somkiat Tangkitvanich released a report on feasibility and guidelines to found a Thai public television for children and family.
2007, March 16th
Kunying Tipawadee Meksawan, Minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Off•ice set up a committee on listening to public opinion on the future of TITV.
2007, March 30th
National Health Foundation, Social Management College, and Civil Organization on Selected Issues organized a public forum on “Public television: a knowledge frontline for citizens?”
2007, April 5th
The listening to public opinion forum was launched at the Public Relations Department.
2007, April 24th
The cabinet made decision to convert TITV to be public service television and drafting a legal bill.
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2007, May 15th
The cabinet approved a principle of the “Thai Public Broadcasting Service Act, B.E….”
2007, June 6th
International workshop on “Doing public television: experiences and lessons on how to make it work.”
2007, July 18th
The National Legislative Assembly of Thailand approved the public TV bill concept.
2008, January 11th
The Friends of Public Television Networks conducted a public forum on ‘Public hearing program contents for public television.’
2008, January 14th
The Thai Public Broadcasting Service Act 2008 was promulgated in the royal Thai government gazette.
2008, January 15th
The cabinet appointed an ad hoc policy committee of the public broadcasting service organization consisting of 5 people to carry out the organization until the legitimate policy committee had been appointed
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Appendix B: Activities of listening to public opinion forums on the future of ThaiPBS management direction The ad hoc policy committee of ThaiPBS, who was appointed in 15th January 2008, set twelve live-programs “Cooperative Thinking and Creating ThaiPBS Meeting� as a public forum so as to exchange thought and ideas and hear advice about its administration and work from the relevant actors. In the same year, it also directly met nine regional people throughout the country as follows; Date
Forum
12 -13 March
4 southern border provinces forum, in Pattani
15th -16th March
The south forum, in Had Yai
18 -19 March
The central forum, in Ayutthaya
22th March
The Bangkok and vicinity forum, in Bangkok
29 -30 March
The east forum, in Pattaya
5th -6th April
The west forum, in Hua Hin
19 -20 April
The lower northeast forum, in Ubon Ratchathani
22th -23th April
The upper northeast forum, in Khon Kaen
26 -27 April
The north forum, in Chang Mai
th
th
th
th
th
th
th
th
th
th
The public hearing forums were divided into 8 issues and 8 sub-groups as follow; - the group of formal and informal education issue; - the group of career and job issue; - the group of culture, music, religion and local sport issue; - the group of right, power, justice and transparency issue; - the group of resource and environment issue; - the group of youth and new generation issue; - the group of civil life, participation and media issue; - and the group of marginal people and poverty issue.
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In each group there was a facilitator team, who ran the dialogue process, recorded and then drew a mind map, which next was presented in the meeting. After that, the result of each sub-group was analyzed and exchanged. Some might do networking and sign in order to be a member of ThaiPBS for working together in the future. Subsequently, the results derived from the meeting were re-analyzed by professional media workers in a work shop for creating “TV program boxes” in order to response the participants and ultimately develop them to become a production and managerial course for the future.
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Appendix C: Public Forums of the Friend of Public Television Networks in 2008 In 2008, not only ThaiPBS who launched many participatory events, but Friend of Public Television Network, with think tank institutions and civil groups, also set up a public forum in order to educate people about public television and prepare society to publicly participate in ThaiPBS in Bangkok and 4 regional; Date
Topic
Forum
29 January
How to present news in ThaiPBS in order to meet the social needs
Bangkok, at Suan Sunandha Pajabhat University
13th February
Public Television: of public, by public and for public
The north forum, in Chang Mai
15th February
Public Television: TV for People
The east forum, at the Burapha University
22th February
Dramas in Public Television: How to create them in the creative way for Thai society
The northeast forum, at the Mahasarakham University
23th February
How can Public TV Program participate to create Thais Quality Life?
The south forum, at Phuket Rajabhat University
th
The important means of these events was to open an opportunity for public expression and advice related to TV programs.
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