MCOT: The best arbiter of truth that has ever come out of the idiot box?

Attention, media of the world! If you think that press freedom was the first victim to be killed in the wake of Thailand’s so-called bloodless coup in the prime-time hours of September 19, you had better take a closer look at its second victim - the listed, state-run Mass Communication Organization of Thailand (MCOT).

Politically-motivated, radical sharp policy u-turn is taking place at the organization which has always been second to no one when it comes to the role of the government’s mouthpiece. The junta and current military-installed government, which late last month had epiphany that they were in the middle of PR stagnation, are now in an all-out effort to re-engineer the state’s propaganda apparatus – particularly the MCOT’s Channel 9 television station. It is preceded by the agency’s modernization under the leadership of its former executive director Mingkwan Saengsuwan, one of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s PR saviors, some four years ago. Since then, Channel 9 has been known as Modernine TV. It was this TV station that ran Thaksin’s state-of-emergency audio broadcast from New York during his final hour in power. Minutes after airing it, the station was under heavy military control.

With the respected veteran newspaperman Pongsak Payakavichien as interim executive director, the channel’s work slogan will be changed from “Towards Wisdom Society” to “Towards Right Wisdom Society”. In the coming weeks, some most popular news-talk and edutainment programs which have put the channel at the forefront of Thailand’s television history in the making are expected to be purged. The old faces of “media headmasters” who proved to be arch-enemies of the deposed government have been invited by the architects of the military-installed government’s PR and media strategy to snatch the prime-time slots. In tandem with the PR Department-run Channel 11, the channel ran a live broadcast of the government’s platform address at the National Legislative Assembly on Friday. Last week, Channel 9 also had a program, entitled “Government’s Policy Critique”. Ironically enough, it featured all-star critics of the Thaksin administration from every circle.

For the government, this battle will be more interesting when the new schedule comes out, when MCOT employees wear black in protest on Tuesday, and when analysts expect another new low for the MCOT stock. This is just a curtain-raiser. Let’s see.