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Thai Government Orders Seven Community Radio Stations to Shut Down

Posted on: Sunday, 11 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

Text of report in English by Thai newspaper The Nation website on 11 September

Seven community radio stations in Lampang were ordered shut down on Thursday [8 September], following charges that their broadcasts were interfering with aviation signals. The seven stations were FM 88.50, FM 96.00, FM 96.00, FM 99.50, FM 100.50, FM102.50 and FM 104.00.

"The order will be enforced immediately, and if they resume broadcasting, they'll face a 40,000 baht fine, two years in jail or both," said Manas Songsaeng, deputy secretary-general of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), who sent the order.

"There are more stations in Lampang that disturb aviation signals, and later we'll inspect them and ask that they be shut down," said Somboon Wongsom, a Lampang public-relations officer.

Currently, some 180 community radio stations have received warnings that they face closure, mostly due to allegedly disrupting aviation signals. Thirteen were shut down before this week. In the upper North, 38 stations have already received closure orders: 15 in Chiang Mai, six in Chiang Rai, five in Phayao, four in Nan and one in Lamphun.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party deputy spokesman Apichart Sakdiseth demanded that Prime Minister Office Minister Suranand Vejjajiva clarify the latest information in regard to the charge itself first before continuing to shut down stations.

"Is it technically the case that community radio broadcasts disturb aviation signals? The latest information we've received is no," he said.

Apichart, who is also a Nakhon Si Thammarat MP, referred to recent testimony by one Thai Airways pilot with 20 years' international experience, who said he did not believe such signal disruption was possible.

"If what the pilot says is true, then the charge is just a claim aimed at shutting down community radio for no sound reason," he said.

"This is the newest information and should be very useful for clarifying the issue. It's the first time we have a pilot's confirmation. This is very significant point and urgently needed to clarify the issue for the public," he said.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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