Thai charter clause to prevent media domination

– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: The new constitution will have a clause that is designed to prevent investor domination over media businesses through hostile takeovers, a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) said yesterday.

The move follows the controversy involving Solution Corner Plc’s acquisition of a 22.7-per-cent stake worth over Bt1 billion in the Nation Multimedia Group, which owns The Nation newspaper. A source in the CDC’s working group on this matter said that the new constitutional clause would be based on the chapter about “liberties in expression of persons and mass media” in the previous charter.

The constitution of 2007 was abolished after the coup in May last year.

The source said that the relevant sections from the 2007 Charter would be retained, with an additional clause added to prevent cross right-holding or market dominance amongst mass-media businesses. Such dominance, the source said, would adversely affect the public’s right to information.

Section 47 of the previous constitution states: “There shall be measures for preventing any merger, cross right-holding or market dominance amongst mass media businesses or by any other person which has the effect of impeding the liberty of the public in perceiving information or of obstructing public access to a diversity of information.”

— Phuket Gazette Editors