PHUKET: Journalists in Europe and Southeast Asia have to speak up for minorities whose only outlet comes via the media, Phuketwan reporter Chutima Sidasathian told a seminar in Bangkok this week.
''Stateless people, disenfranchised people and some ethnic groups fall outside politics and often have no say in their own futures,'' she told a group from Minority Rights Group International.
The young journalists from Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania and Greece listened to the difficulties Khun Chutima has encountered in continuing to report on the exodus of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority from Burma, a story she began to tell in 2008.
Khun Chutima updated them about the attempt by the Royal Thai Navy to silence Phuketwan by using the draconian Computer Crimes Act and criminal defamation to sue her and a colleague, Australian Alan Morison.
The republished 41-word paragraph over which the pair were sued, she told them, was written by two Reuters reporters who soon after won the Pulitzer Prize for their series on the Rohingya, having employed her as a ''fixer'' and relied on Phuketwan reports for background.
''Despite the importance of protecting the universal freedom to report, Reuters has failed to speak out in defence of a [part-time] employee, its paragraph and Phuketwan,'' Khun Chutima said.
''Large corporate media organisations are the same as other multinational brands,'' she said. ''The brand eventually becomes more important than the values that created it.
''We still hope that the journalists at Reuters might one day persuade the corporate brand defenders to change back to old-fashioned reporting values, and to come to our aid.''
She said Reuters was doing excellent work in taking reporting of the Rohingya issue across the region.
As a small organisation without capital, Phuketwan was limited in what it could do but always fully supported other media that sought to cover the issue more broadly, with better resources.
Khun Chutima and Morison each face seven years' jail in a trial over the Reuters paragraph that resumes in July.
Charges against Reuters and its reporters were also commenced by the Royal Thai Navy but did not proceed.
''Stateless people, disenfranchised people and some ethnic groups fall outside politics and often have no say in their own futures,'' she told a group from Minority Rights Group International.
The young journalists from Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania and Greece listened to the difficulties Khun Chutima has encountered in continuing to report on the exodus of the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority from Burma, a story she began to tell in 2008.
Khun Chutima updated them about the attempt by the Royal Thai Navy to silence Phuketwan by using the draconian Computer Crimes Act and criminal defamation to sue her and a colleague, Australian Alan Morison.
The republished 41-word paragraph over which the pair were sued, she told them, was written by two Reuters reporters who soon after won the Pulitzer Prize for their series on the Rohingya, having employed her as a ''fixer'' and relied on Phuketwan reports for background.
''Despite the importance of protecting the universal freedom to report, Reuters has failed to speak out in defence of a [part-time] employee, its paragraph and Phuketwan,'' Khun Chutima said.
''Large corporate media organisations are the same as other multinational brands,'' she said. ''The brand eventually becomes more important than the values that created it.
''We still hope that the journalists at Reuters might one day persuade the corporate brand defenders to change back to old-fashioned reporting values, and to come to our aid.''
She said Reuters was doing excellent work in taking reporting of the Rohingya issue across the region.
As a small organisation without capital, Phuketwan was limited in what it could do but always fully supported other media that sought to cover the issue more broadly, with better resources.
Khun Chutima and Morison each face seven years' jail in a trial over the Reuters paragraph that resumes in July.
Charges against Reuters and its reporters were also commenced by the Royal Thai Navy but did not proceed.
Dear Alan,you support a lot of their accomplishments, but they can't assume a bit of criticism it's going to a military dictatorship if this continues, I sincerely hope you will be able to continue what you are doing right now, success!
Posted by Khun Philippe on March 11, 2015 23:49