With apologies for cross
posting:
AMARC calls to End
Harassment of Community Radios in Thailand
July 22, 2010. Kathmandu.
The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, AMARC is deeply
concerned by the reports about the restrictions imposed on community radio
stations in Thailand including the closure of several stations. Recent
reports state that using the emergency decree, authorities have shut down 26
community-radio stations in nine provinces and pressured six others to
discontinue their services, and as many as 84 community-radio stations have
been blacklisted and their activities closely monitored. It is further reported
that at least 35 people related to these media outlets - like radio hosts,
station chiefs and executives - are facing legal action for allegedly
mobilising their listeners to the red-shirt rally in Bangkok, for broadcasting
what was going on at the rally site and for distorting information.
"However, there are no clear details to substantiate these charges,"
said the Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR) secretary-general Suthep
Wilailert. He was reported to be speaking at a seminar about the fate of
community radio stations under the state of emergency.
Article19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.” As an advocate of fundamental human
rights including the right to communication and information, and as the global
network of community broadcasters, AMARC calls upon the Government of
Thailand to ensure that community broadcasters are not harassed for the
political views they hold. “Community radio stations speak on behalf of
the people of the community and it is wrong to execute the messenger. I appeal
to the Government of Thailand and the concerned authorities to not to
arbitrarily oppress community broadcasters under any pretext,” said Imam
Prakoso, Vice President for South East Asia in the AMARC Asia Pacific Regional
Board. Expressing concerns over the closure of the stations and legal actions
underway against community broadcasters, he has called to uphold the
internationally accepted rights of community radio stations to freely and
independently broadcast views on political, social, and economical, as well as
all other issues that concern the lives of the communities that the stations
serve.
As the world’s biggest
broadcasting movement with more than 5,000 member community broadcasting stations
and advocates worldwide, AMARC believes that democracy and social justice is
only achievable when there is a free press.
-END-
About AMARC:
AMARC is an international
non-governmental organization serving the community radio movement in over 110
countries, and advocating for the right to communicate at the international,
national, local and neighborhood levels. AMARC has an International Secretariat
in Montreal. It has regional sections in Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific
and offices in Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Brussels, and Kathmandu. For more
information, please contact Suman Basnet, Regional Coordinator for
Asia-Pacific, [log in to unmask]
or visit www.asiapacific.amarc.org.