Evolution of People’s TV in Thailand: The PAD Experiment

By Dr. Palphol Rodloytuk[1]

Thai mass media, notably in the past several years, including newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, and of late the internet, have been divided into pro-state, pro-establishment, purely commercialized, leaving only a handful in the mainstream media that are pro-civil society or promote citizen participation in the social, political development process of the country. This phenomenon speaks for mainstream daily newspapers, radio stations whose electromagnetic frequencies belong to state and military institutions, community radio frequencies, free TV stations that are operated by state, state-enterprise, and private operators, as well as the websites that are largely operated by private operators.

The political situation in the past several years under the government of Thaksin Shinawatra saw mainstream media, print, electronic, and IT, toeing the government lines, deliberately supporting the political discourse of the administration of Thaksin Shinawatra, or promoting their own business affairs which co-existed happily with the Thaksin administration policies, avoiding to upset the way of the government. Even after the coup d’etat by the military in September 2006 which ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from power, this division and role of majority of mainstream media of various types maintain in ways that hardly changed when compared to the period between 2001-2006. The political party of Thaksin Shinawatra, namely Palangprachachon or People’s Power, won the election and formed the Thaksin proxy government in February 2008, and the way of the mainstream media is still largely unchanged.

With pro-civil society media being rare, there is a need for alternative communication outlets which fulfill the need for deepening social, political civil commissioners of society and even helping to build civil society. This sets the pretext to the birth and expansion of Asian Satellite TV (ASTV), a cable TV station as an alternative media force against the mainstream media limitations as stated earlier.

ASTV carries such features as reality TV, involving the senses and experiences of the protesters (political) the networking of People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) across the grassroots, middle-class, and elite segments of society (social). The PAD movement throughout these past few years have been led by the five leaders, namely Sondhi Limthongkul from the media industry, Chamlong Sri Muang from the Santi Asoke (peace and non-sorrow), Pipob Thongchai from the NGO sector, Somsak Kosayasuk from the labor union sector, and Somkiat Phongpaibul, a veteran teacher who has been a leader of the Assembly of the Poor movement. The station acts an enabling agent for building civil society as a balancing social and political force in the society (including mixed media and alignment by other media).

Before long this evolution of the so-called ‘People’s TV’ via internet services and satellite technology in connection to the PAD movement in Thailand needs to be contextualized. ASTV, the main conduit of information propagating the PAD movement, in particular during the period of May to December 2008, has a long history of development associated with the birth and growth of Manager Daily Newspaper.

Manager Daily Newspaper, now renamed as ASTV-Manager Daily Newspaper, was founded by Sondhi Limthongkul in 1990. It gained popularity with its fearless coverage of the democratic uprising in May 1992 (Bloody May 1992) following the military coup d’etat in 1991. Sondhi, its founder, hosted a TV program called ‘Thailand Weekly on Tour’ (muangthai rai subdah sanjohn) in 2005, which in part inspires the PAD movement. Manager Daily Newspaper in 2006 elaborated on the issues being taken up by this ‘Thailand Weekly Program on Tour’ since then and orchestrated the voice of the PAD movement.

In 2008, the Manager Media Group, as the owner of the daily newspaper and the engine behind the success of the vocal television programs mentioned, was declared bankrupted by the Bankruptcy Court due to the overwhelming 4.7 Billion Baht in debt. As a consequence, the media group changed its name to ASTV-Manager under the ownership of ASTV Thailand in November 2008. Now, ASTV-Manager on-line, one of Thailand’s most popular news websites, plays a vital role in advancing the cause of the PAD movement. The ASTV-Manager change-over of media business currently involves the ASTV-Manager daily newspaper printed from Monday-Saturday, a weekly newspaper, a monthly magazine, and ASTV-Manager News on-line (the ASTV-Manager News website), and a few PAD-linked radio stations broadcast on regular FM radio frequencies as well as on receivable on-line. What is now the ASTV-Manager News website was founded in 1999 and became the 24 hours news website on 2001. Being real time, it relies on 40 staff in addition to newspaper editorial staff.

The Manager media group itself became involved with TV work around 2001, with the ‘Thailand Daily’ TV program aired on Channel 9 from Monday-Friday before renaming and reformatting the program to ‘Thailand Weekly’ on 2003 aired every Friday evening. In 2003, the Manager media group was allowed to produce a news program via satellite, which was broadcast briefly on a UBC Cable TV channel. This exploration into the field of satellite TV technology sprang the idea for evolving a model of ASTV. Though this was the case, the coming into existence of ASTV was hard earned. 

The Manager Group made entry into the TV sphere, involving a small daily and weekly program on Channels 11 and 9 on the one hand, and as a News channel (News 1), which fed its contents to a UBC cable TV channel, on the other. The ‘Thailand Daily’ and ‘Thailand Weekly’ programs were aired on those channels for a duration before they were removed due to political pressure for their outspokenness and severe criticisms of the Thaksin Shinawatra government back then. The News 1 channel’s feeding of news materials to a cable TV channel was also stopped due to political pressure.  

Questions were raised about the legality of the News1 channel on ASTV which ran 24 hours a day, but the critics and dissenters of News 1 could not find fault with the news operation, as it was uplinked via satellite from outside Thailand. While using signals from outside, News 1 sold its contents to ASIA Times on-line overseas.

In 2008, a significant battle was weighed and won to keep the ASTV broadcast going after the Public Relations Department issued an order asking CAT Telecoms to stop the relaying of signals of ASTV thru its network. The Public Relations Department as the licenser informed the Director of the news program that the program had used the language that could be perceived as offensive to monarchy of Thailand and to state officers and the Thai government. On top of that, the Public Relations Department claimed that the News 1 channel on ASTV was not licensed, so it took criminal action against ASTV. Back in 2006, CAT Telecoms informed internet service providers to stop relaying signals of ASTV with reference to the Public Relations Department order.

 The Administrative Court asked CAT Telecoms to pay in compensation for the loss of money starting from 2006 when CAT Telecoms filed the lawsuit against ASTV. The court found that this accusation and action by the Public Relations Department violated the license regulation as the operator of News 1 received the license from CAT Telecoms thru another satellite operator overseas namely Globe Satellite Service.

Now that the history of ASTV was understood, it is important to bring the discussion to the recent development of ASTV in connection to the PAD movement, the commonly known hallmark period of 193 days battle of the PAD movement supporters and followers. 

The recent development of ASTV can be understood in two phases, the early phase before the September 2006 coup d’etat, the second phase in 2008, especially during the 193 days duration of the PAD protest, and the development after January 2009. To this end, one needs to understand the broadcasting program layout of ASTV before and after May 2008 up to December 2008 and the development after January 2009. The first phase will not be emphasized in this commentary, but this commentary will give emphasis to the 2^nd phase which is unique in at least a few aspects.

Before May 2008, ASTV followed the mixed format of TV news broadcast as could be seen on ASTV News 1, one of its main channels, starting the day with a morning news talk program, followed by a roundtable news analysis program. Then it carried a Dhamma-current affair program before it provided news round-ups and afternoon round table programs and ended the afternoon with the news hour program which rounded up news throughout the day. The evening programs were largely news talk and analysis programs held largely by ASTV news staff and experts with regular commentators and invited guests from outside the news organization appropriate to the topics.

After May 2008, for the duration of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) throughout 193 days, the format had changed to become that of reality TV running for 24 hours a day 7 days a week. 193 days was supposedly the longest duration of any mass protest to effect change of government any country ever records in the contemporary history of mankind. It involved protests on the street, literally sleeping and eating on the ground, mobile protests on strategic government premises, delivery of political speeches, round-table political talks, and live bands. As the PAD movement grew much larger drawing hundred of thousands up to millions of supporters and followers, there emerged a strong need to have more than five PAD leaders as mentioned earlier. Before the 2008 protest ended in December, several more capable people were appointed as PAD leaders, but they were referred to as the ‘second batch’ of PAD movement leaders. All these activities occurred around the clock and were televised live on the ASTV channel and on the Manager News website. The broadcast of the PAD protest was done outdoors on stages in the main. PAD protests had been held at first on Rajadamnoen (Royal Procession) Avenue and later in the Government House, and finally inside the old and present international airports.

This cohered with the networking and expansion of the protesters across the grassroots, middle-class, and elite segments of society of PAD protesters throughout the country. What differed before the reality format was adopted was the heavy emphasis on the PAD leaders as speakers on the stage, protesters participation, individual groups, musical performers of various strands who shared the same political ideology, and competent speakers of various groups and institutions which could enlighten and awaken the senses of civil society and implant messages in ways uniform to the pad leaders’ intention.

Programming contents after January 2009 involve more variety, edutainment approaches, entertainment on the weekend, based on PAD plans. It will not be sensational entertainment or nonsense entertainment, but will be elucidating. It will bring on bands, performances, and all heroes, heroines arising out of PAD protests. Faiths, convictions, and values underlying PAD protests, movements will be lived and lifted after this.

ASTV became the first of ‘people’s TV’ following the PAD protest movement from May 2008 to December 2008 started from the ‘last war’ to the ‘holy war’ discourse. The discourse has been used almost in parallel with one another. The meaning of the ‘last war’ was completed with the understanding of the ‘holy war’. The ‘last war’ was meaningful first and foremost to the supporting crowds of ASTV, who felt that the war against the system of the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has not been won with the falling of the September 2006 coup d’etat.

The system of Thaksin crept back and became stronger than ever through the proxy political system. The proxy governments of Thaksin Shinwatra made it their top priority to amend the 2007 constitution to clear the legal hurdles for former prime minister and his cronies to be able to re-enter political scenes after they were barred for five years from any form of political engagement by the Constitutional Court in 2007. Besides, he and a number of his cronies were charged with political wrong doings and Thaksin himself was sentenced to two years in jail for corruption.

Within the first few months after the proxy administration of Prime Minister Samak Soontoravej came to power, the PAD was brought back to the street to protest, and the rhetoric of the ‘last war’ had been used since May 2008. The message was repeated in the protests which developed into the setting of a protest stage on Makawanrangsant (Avenue of God Indra creation) Bridge on Rajadamnoen (Royal Procession) Avenue, and it was televised live 24 hours on ASTV News1 in ways that a reality TV channel would. Thousands of protesters grew into tens of thousands, from areas near Bangkok in the beginning, then spread to upcountry and remote areas in the southern and eastern shores and upper central provinces. Shortly after, the rhetoric of the holy war began on the stage and it was repeated to the ears of the crowds watching ASTV.

The ‘holy war’ was injected a meaning that bore more impact on the widening number of viewers of ASTV. It is often explained as the war to protect the three institutions of Thailand, namely the state, the religion, and the monarchy. As months passed, evidence regarding the offence against the state and monarchy became more undeniable, drawing more angry and frustrated supporters to the PAD protest movement and to the ASTV television screen. The former regards the disputed land of Phra Vihara (Phra Vihaer) on the Thai-Cambodia border, and the latter about the les majeste charges against the Thai monarchs. These charges which tended to be played down or denied by state and commercially oriented media including newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations were drummed up on the stages televised 24 hours on ASTV. These protest stages were shifted to quite a few locations on Rajadamneon (Royal Procession) Avenue before the PAD protesters captured the Government House. This brought more viewers and supporters to ASTV. The protesters were upset with the muffing of news and information by the mainstream media which were either pro-government (Thaksin) or found it unfavorable to their business to challenge the government views or adopted political views.

ASTV, as a reality TV venture alone, would not suffice to fan the fire of the PAD protest to become another checks & balances element to the government exercise of power in Thai society. Along came the phenomenon of mixed media used by ASTV, including Manager Newspaper, the Manager website, and affiliated radio stations which were far and few between. As the PAD protest movement grew in popularity, more news, analyses, and commentaries in favor and disfavor of the protest were covered more widely by mainstream newspapers, radio stations, websites, and news agencies, local as well as international. As news about the PAD protest was heard nationwide, local cable TV stations and operators began to package ASTV News 1, one of the channels on ASTV, as part of their service to the local viewers at the grassroots, even in Northern and Northeastern Thailand where the Thaksin Shinawatra support remained dominant.

ASTV widened its network of broadcast of the PAD protest with the relaying of signals of community radio stations in quite a few provinces. Community radio stations tended to broadcast the PAD protest during prime time hours from around early to late evenings where leaders of PAD spoke and when PAD engaged crowds in protest activities, e.g. flash, un-notified protests to besiege strategic places (dao kra jai in the Thai language). ASTV strengthened its broadcast capabilities via internet when, after a few months to the protest, broadcast satellite signals on ASTV News 1 were jammed more often than before at first during prime time evening hours, then almost throughout the day. As the problem of jammed signals was being dealt with, hundreds of thousands of website entries to on-line Manager Newspaper, live webcasting of ASTV and Manager Radio could be recorded on peak hours on weekdays and weekends. These entries represent middle class, well-educated followers and supporters of ASTV and the PAD protest movement.

Mixed media and reality TV features aside, other components were evident lent the PAD protest movement a strong national impact. One aspect was the live attendance to the PAD protest movement by many PAD protesters on most of weekday and weekend evenings. Live audienceship to join and participate in the protest movement, instead of exclusive on-screen viewing of ASTV News 1, added more impact and meaning to the PAD protest movement.

Other symbolic activities also highlighted the protest, including plastic hand-clappers, scarfs, head scarfs, t-shirts imprinted with strong PAD messages. Then it became common practice for groups of supporters from different provinces or even districts or sub-districts where they belonged to don banners of their localities and had them announced and seen on TV and on the internet. In the beginning it was the Friday evening to Sunday evening affairs, then expanded to almost every day.

After 4 months passed, when large numbers of crowds were needed, many localities in many provinces held fund-raising activities and drew support from local sponsors to send busloads and planeloads of protesters to come to participate in Bangkok. Names of the groups, localities and provinces were announced and thanked on stage and millions of viewers know about their participation and effort and appreciated that very much. Columns, analyses, and scoops were allocated on daily newspapers to highlight these activities and participation by groups and individuals as hundreds of thousands of protesters even up to a million participating in the PAD protest.

What enhanced their symbolic movements was the phenomenon unique to Thai society called mae-yok. A mae-yok connotes generous and loyal female supporters who constantly bring food, gifts, valuable items, totems, or even money to support the activities or persons of their desire to allow them to prosper or continued or fans who go to the extreme of supporting their idols. But mae-yok also include the male counterparts. In the case of the PAD protesters, it so happened that more than 60% of the protesters and supporters were females, so the mae-yok reflect the female population who at first seem primarily middle-aged and well-off ladies fans. Later the younger generations came to give their support and join activities.

The mae-yok at first began with the provisions of food and drinks for the protesters and the speakers, staff, performers, singers, and bands who work on stage for several hours per day. Later it include medical supplies, cash, and other provisions as required by the stages and the protesters. Doctors and nurses increased in number after threats were posed to use police force to break up the crowds, and crack-down efforts were made by police officers and the opposing side. So, these added to the dimension of this reality TV with important announcements made throughout the day. Also, whether watching by internet or TV, one got a wide variety of contents from music to news, commentaries, talks, speeches, announcements or even dhamma talks. It sets precedent to reality TV that is an enabling social, political tool. With that mae-yok moved every where to support the protests with the plastic hand-clappers, scarfs, head scarfs, and necessary provisions that made these protests a success. These became hightlights of the protests in as much as the pad leaders, the supporting crowds, and the messages they are educating themselves. They received a lot of mainstream and international media coverage.

These points aside, the ASTV and PAD protest phenomena was a political and social learning process, which led to the growth of politically and socially inclined civil society, composed of middle class, elite and grassroots segments of the population, unlike past civil society development which mainly involved middle class groups. The sense of political awareness deepened, starting from anti-Thaksin sentiments, the opposition to the attempts by the Thaksin Shinawatra proxy government of Samak Soontoravej to amend the 2007 constitution, to the full swing demand for new politics during another Thaksin Shinawatra proxy government of Somchai Wongsawat. These were measured by the PAD protest leaders’ declarations which came in dozens throughout the duration of 193 days.

Without PAD movements for 193 days, constitution would have been amended, and the balancing force would have been weakened. The proxy governments would have lasted, and the Thaksin system would have strengthened. The major institutions in Thailand would have been weakened. This then became the longest held protests with effective plans and movements in the world with major institutions and symbolic places being surrounded and under siege. It involves arrests, injuries, deaths, suffering, joy, victory, etc.

The list of the protesters’ demand grew longer, and more solid demands were made about new politics. It reflected the crystalization of political needs and demands to get the country out of this political impasse caused by old politics or money politics, nepotism, cronyism that the Thaksin system of government came to symbolize in the past several years. New politics became the PAD protest mandate from recent protests and for near future protests.

The PAD protesters decided to stop their protests after the Abhisit Vejjajiva Administration from Democrats Party came to office in mid-December 2008 to replace the Thaksin proxy government led by Somchai Wongsawat. Even with the shift of power paradigm, the PAD protest leaders made the last of declarations to the new coming administration of Abhisit Vejjajiva with demands for new politics, among several things. This declaration was made after the PAD protesters besieged the old Don Muang  international airport and the present Suvarnabhumi international airport in late November to early December 2008. It reflects a firm commitment to uproot old political practice of shifting power paradigm but still maintaining the key players with the same mindset about politics backed by money and political clout. New politics as is demanded by the PAD protest supporters cannot be found now, but it has to be achieved after this, most likely in the near future where politics represents people from different segments.

As for the social learning process, it was a way toward the networking of PAD protest groups and members inside and outside Thailand. The three classes of people came to be connected and support each other. Activities will be held more so after the New Year celebration of the year 2009 than before in and between the localities and groups to cement their ties and grow in size with the leaders of pad rotating to meet them. This helps enlarge the size of the PAD network, especially at the grassroots. This social movement also gears to raise funds to buy more ASTV satellite dishes and distribute them to very remote areas, especially in the North and Northeast of Thailand. It also helps to promote the loyalty and support to ASTV to keep it operational. It costs several millions of bath to operate ASTV per month, but ASTV had now become the first viewer-supported satellite (free TV) to millions of viewers. It costs more than 100 million baht to keep ASTV News 1 running 24 hours a day for 193 days alone. A recent estimate is between 15-20 million viewers. An AC Neilson survey shows that ASTV has come in third in popularity even among free TV choices, and it came first when it comes to not being switched away by viewers.

As far as the social learning process is concerned, the networking among PAD protesters and supporters brought new meaning to audience and viewership of people’s TV.  Business directories would be produced about PAD networks to help with the networking of PAD after New Year. This is designed to inform PAD supporters to buy products from within the PAD movement circle. It is the expansion of the family of PAD. It shows that free TV regular channels have not been bonded with their views to this degree. This aftermath of PAD will result in the PAD foundation. More things will follow, e.g. provisions of scholarships to children of the dead and crippled. Visits and counseling with the sufferers will be made constantly.

Of late, a few ‘political concerts’ were held in provinces outside Bangkok where large crowds of PAD supporters of over several thousands to 10,000 attended each time. Tens of millions of Baht in income was made from organizing these PAD political concerts and donated to ASTV to keep the station operational. Many more such concerts will be held across the country throughout 2009 to help subsidize ASTV, though this amount of donation can barely cover the basic operational costs of the TV station. In the long run when several million viewers of ASTV and PAD movement supporters can get themselves better organized to systematically support ASTV, this ‘ASTV model’ can prove as a financially viable model for promoting and expanding the ‘people’s TV station’ that could be implemented elsewhere in the Asian region. It is also a way of reviving and promoting local cultures and local tourism, while PAD political discourse on ‘new politics’ can reach many more people, even in areas in the North and Northeast which are strongholds for Thaksin Shinawatra followers. PAD leaders expect to hold PAD political concerts in as many provinces as it possibly can. The expansion of PAD followers across the country defaults in more audienceship for the ASTV News 1 Channel, and more donation money and sponsorship to support the TV station.

It remains to be seen how this business culture of ASTV supporters throughout the system of PAD directories can be expanded and help strengthen the PAD movement across the country. Within this culture, there is a practice that is uniquely Thai of support and charity, one that is reflected in the nature of mae-yok discussed earlier. This practice needs to be assessed further of how PAD vendors and business operators are eager to sell their products and offer their services to PAD consumers and customers at a low or modest price, or even in extreme cases, offer their products or services free of charge. On the other hand, the PAD buyers and customers are willing to buy and pay without bargaining for a better deal, knowing that this PAD-generated economy will feedback to support ASTV and PAD movements in the future. This marks a morality-building and civil-society conscience building boon for the PAD movement through the viewership of ASTV, in particular ASTV News 1.

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