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Tuesday January 16, 3:12 PMThai junta denies censoring CNN interview with ousted PM
Thaksin broke his media silence in an interview with broadcaster CNN on Monday night, but most Thais were unable to watch their former prime minister talk about the September 19 coup which overthrew him. Instead, the local cable provider switched to a red screen with rotating images of celebrities such as Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Angelina Jolie. Text at the bottom of the screen read "Programming will return shortly". On the night of the putsch, the military blocked the BBC and CNN, but the junta, which calls itself the Council for National Security (CNS), on Tuesday denied it was behind the recent intervention. "The Council for National Security did not order the censorship of the local cable operator, but I think it was because the CNS asked for cooperation from the media last week," CNS spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd told AFP. The junta last Thursday advised television and radio stations against broadcasting statements by the fallen leader, prompting media rights groups to accuse the military leaders of threatening press freedom in the kingdom. Local cable provider UBC, which broadcasts CNN, was not available for comment Tuesday morning. Thai news channels decided not to broadcast excerpts from the CNN interview, and told AFP that they censored themselves because they did not want to get in trouble with the junta. During the interview, Thaksin said he had no intention of returning to Thai politics and had nothing to do with fatal bomb blasts in the capital on New Year's Eve which the junta has blamed on his political supporters. In another interview, on the Wall Street Journal website, he appealed for a return to democracy, and warned that the public would not tolerate military rule in the kingdom for long. One foreign news editor with a state-run television station admitted that his channel received the feed from CNN, but decided against putting it on air. "It's our own decision not to broadcast it, since we were asked to cooperate with the CNS last week," he said. Junta chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin denied they had ordered Thai media to block the interview with Thaksin. "It's cooperation. Everybody cooperated with us," he told Channel 3 television station Tuesday morning. However, both local Thai and English-language newspapers carried full reports and screengrabs from the interview, which CNN is due to be shown in full this weekend. |
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