Thai News helping criminals
If you been long enough in Thailand you know that, the Thai media like to point fingers at criminals literality. They want the criminals to set up a stage and the victim should point at the criminal while they take photos. If the victim is dead, them some volunteer is always near to point. Sometimes strangers walk in and take a photo for the album at home with the dead victim. This is neither good for a crime scene or for the victim’s family this been covered on our blog before.
Lately I seen victim of a crime confronted by the camera in the nastiest way and their home address and passport or ID number bashed out to the public. How will this help the police and victim? The criminals know the location and ID of the victim. It is off course not correct to show suspects on TV either before they are convicted criminals.
Let us say that Mr. X who is married and have a wife in Germany goes to a bar in Pattaya and take a girl home, she drugs him and take his things. Now Mr. X goes down to the local police station in Pattaya where the news people also live (they have a desk there) and report the crime. In two hours, time his face, passport number and hotel room is blasted to Pattaya TV and YouTube. He is the victim but in Germany, his wife is already preparing the divorce paper. Not only did he date a hooker but she was a ladyboy as well but Mr.X did not know that. One of the housekeepers in the house said that Mr.X is well known for taking boys to the room every night, party, and take drugs (she thinks he give bad tip so she made something up). Nothing of this is relevant to the case off course or true but the news in Pattaya keeps on sending the more dirt the better.
So when someone wants to report a crime to the Police in Pattaya he have to face the facts that his passports his life and house probably will be invaded by people who has nothing to do with the case and should normally be called intruders. He has to live with the fact that lies will be told on TV and on YouTube and the story copied and discussed on hundred of websites around the world. A victim will think twice before he reports a crime to the Pattaya Police station and that will help the criminals in Thailand.
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The Red Shirt protesters in Bangkok have at least turned the light on the bad rep the press freedom have in Thailand. Several websites have similar content these days and they are growing in number. The number of website that Thailand block also grows every day and that is not a good thing. The MICT from order from the government blocked 500 websites per day since the Red Shirts started to take over Bangkok. MICT have also blocked pages from big newspapers such as The Nation and Bangkok Post. Some editors on big Thai speaking newspapers been arrested just for commenting a video on a website that is blocked in Thailand. The New Mandala talked about a sensitive video that has been shown in Australia regarding blocked subjects in Thailand. Fact Thailand reports about blocked websites and how they want press freedom in Thailand. Will these different website also be closed down or blocked in a matter of time or will the MICT just go after publications in Thailand?
The video in matter is only be found in one place now and that is on the UDD Facebook page, it is deleted from different file sharing sites but will problem come up soon again. It was even upload on Pantip one of Thailand biggest forum but deleted soon after.
You can read about the video from foreign correspondent on Thai Political Prisoner and the New Mandala if you are in Australia you can go directly to ABC.
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A leading film company that Personal Thailand have talked to say that the happy pictures that the happy image that the Director General of Tourism Development Office try to paint is not true.
Most of their clients have canceled their shooting in Thailand this year because of the civil unrest and problems with the Redshirts.
The film making office in Thailand said that the film crews want safety and maybe that’s why they cancel their plans to make film in Thailand. Thousands of Redshirts that run around Bangkok every weekend is not consider safe and if you look back on what happen with Yellowshirts when they got desperate and Songkran last year in Bangkok.
The Thai government needs to do more then send out half true press reports to make everything ok again.
Original News from Thai News Bureau
Despite the domestic political difficulties that seem to afflict every industry in the nation, a certain group of foreigners has chosen to shrug them off and carry on with their multi-million-dollar projects right in this vibrant country.
Director General of Tourism Development Office, Mr Seksun Narkwong, said this year he expects more foreign filmmakers to come to Thailand compared with last year.
At least 6-7 major movies have already contacted Thai authorities for filming permission. This is considered a good sign after last year’s economic crisis impacted the industry.
Extrapolating from the trend, the number of movies to be shot in Thailand is expected to increase no less than 50% compared to last year, or around 1.2-1.5 billion THB.
However, it is unlikely to reach 2 billion as in 2008 due to the as-yet-uncompleted economic recovery.
Mr Seksun revealed the latest figures showing that there are now 133 movies which have filed permission requests.
However, some have decided to postpone their production plans as they are concerned that the uncertain political situation may be prolonged.
They may decide to relocate to other countries, which would disappointingly lead to losses of opportunity and income for Thailand.
If there is no violence like last year’s April riots, and no airport seizure, the filming will not be affected. The important thing the foreign filmmakers want is safety, Mr Seksun explained.
According to the Thailand Film Office, there were 116 foreign movies which were filmed in January and February, generating a total income of 213 million THB.
Out of this number, 40 were documentaries, 60 advertising movies, 5 feature films, 7 TV movies, and 4 music videos. A majority of the production is from Japan, a total of 33, followed by India, 22, and Europe, 20.
This year, the Office of Tourism Development will step forward in building confidence among movie producers abroad as well as introducing attractive shooting locations in Thailand to the global market.
Representatives from the agency will be joining major film events to be organized in Korea, Hong Kong, the US, France, Japan, and Spain. The upcoming event is the Film Festival in Hong Kong which will be held from 20-26 March.
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Every Sunday in the Bangkok post you can read about the Thai daras (stars). It is off course a shorter a version of what’s really going on and thank good for that. In Thailand you show your face in some TV soap opera and then suddenly you have a manger and you will get paid to show up on parties.
I can tell you that some of these people are going to maybe 50 different events a week and get paid for some of them.
They are really not real super stars but Thai media hype them up in a very crazy way and they just jump on it. It’s really funny and sad to see how they are using (read abusing) the Thai legal system for their silly fights.
They are suing each other for 50 million here and 100 million there for something somebody said or could have said maybe.
If they are real lucky they can come to live TV and cry out and beg for mercy at someone feet, that’s quality TV ladies and gents.
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