Thailand has a well-developed mass media sector, especially by Southeast Asian standards. The Thai government and the military have long exercised considerable control over the media, especially radio and television stations. During the governments of Thaksin Shinawatra and the subsequent military-run administration after the 2006 coup and military coup of 2014, the media in Thailand—both domestic and foreign—have suffered from increasing restrictions and censorship, sometimes subtle, sometimes overt.
In its Freedom of the Press 2017 report, Freedom House labeled the Thai press as "not free". Reporters Without Borders in 2021 ranked Thailand 137th out of 180 nations in press freedom, up three spots from 2020. Assaults on press freedom have continued in 2020, including self-censorship from mainstream media on the demands to reform the Thai monarchy during the 2020–2021 Thai protests.
On World Press Freedom Day 2015, four of Thailand's professional media organizations issued a joint statement calling for the military government to revoke onerous press restrictions and cease political interference with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission of Thailand.
Television
Television is by far the most popular medium in Thailand. Almost 80% of Thais are estimated to rely on television as their primary source of news. Major television stations are owned and controlled by the Royal Thai Army, MCOT and government.
Radio Thailand has 204 AM stations, 334 FM stations, and six shortwave broadcasters (as of 2011). As is the case with television, radio broadcasting is supposed to be regulated by the Broadcasting Commission (NBC). However, because there were delays in establishing the NBC (now NBTC), radio frequencies had remained in the hands of several governmental agencies, including the military, police, state universities, The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, The Government Public Relations Department (PRD) (National Broadcasting Services of Thailand), and MCOT Public Company Limited. These agencies operate several stations directly while the remainder are leased out to private content providers.
Community radio stations operated with low-power transmitters have proliferated in the last few years, offering listeners an alternative to the government-controlled stations. However, the government has recently shut down many community radio stations on the grounds that they operated stronger transmitters than permitted, interfering with existing frequencies. On the other hand, critics of the government allege that the stations that were shut down were targeted because they featured programs that were critical of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's policies.
In Nakhon Ratchasima Province as well as in other locations, several community radio stations were shut down, after several warnings from governmental agencies, when it was proven that their signals were interfering with air traffic control and overlapping signals of other stations. It is estimated that there are 4,000 known "illegal" community radio stations in Thailand. Some critics claim that the actual number of "unlicensed" community radio stations are twice the government estimate. After Thaksin Shinawatra was removed from power, community radio activities were more and more attuned to address political controversies that had been spun off after the coup d'état of 2006.For more on this area see: Freeman, B. C., & Poorisat, T. (2012). Taxi driver radio and the politics of Thai community radio. In K. Seneviratne's (Ed.) Peoples’ Voices, Peoples’ Empowerment: Community Radio in Asia and Beyond, pp.274-293. Singapore: AMIC Asian Communication Series.
The military junta parliament passed a Broadcasting Act of 2008 in December 2007. It came into force in March 2008. The new law revokes the old one which reserved monopoly rights in the broadcast sector to the government and governmental agencies. The new law requires that all broadcasters, stations, and operators have a license from the broadcasting regulator to be appointed by the senate.
In July 2008, the Juridical Council decided that by enactment of the new Broadcasting Act of 2008, all of the regulations, decisions, and administrative guidelines issued by virtue of the repealed Radio and Television Act ceased to exist as they were superseded by the new Broadcasting Act of 2008. The Juridical Council also ruled that, pending the establishment of NBC, TPBS is not subject to provisional authority of the Broadcasting Act 2008. As a result of the Juridical Council ruling, broadcasting in Thailand is free and unregulated. However, given the fact that all the existing radio stations belong to the Thai Government, military or security agencies, the issue of free speech or civil rights has never been challenged or tested in those "mainstream" radio stations. For television, all TV stations are either owned by government, the military, or subject to concession agreements which give de facto censoring power to the government as an owner.
As of June 2009, the National Telecommunications Commission as a temporary regulator/licensor for community radio and cable television, proposed the draft "Provisional CR License" and requested comment from the public. The regulation on CR Temporary License became effective on 25 July 2009 and the first license could be issued 30 days following the effective date. The provisional license will be in force for 300 days but can be renewed for another similar period or until the new regulator comes into existence.
In December 2010, the parliament passed a new law which would forever change the landscape of radio and television services in Thailand. The new NBTC would be created to oversee both telecommunications and broadcast sector in Thailand. The key task of the NBTC is to reform the AV spectrum and reassign spectrum for different categories of use as prescribed by the 2008 act. Airwaves would be privatized according to Spectrum Master Plan and AV Master Plan to be adopted by NBTC. It is expected that the NBTC will replace NTC within 2011. The implication of having an independent media and telecom regulator in a single body is very profound. First, the regulator is tasked with privatization of the airwaves in AV sector. This is the most challenging task of the NBTC, i.e., taking away radio and TV from government and reallocating and reassigning spectrum for private, commercial, and societal use. The Broadcasting Act of 2008 divides radio and TV licenses into three main categories: a) commercial, b) noncommercial/ public and, c) community. The commercial service license is subdivided into three classes which are i) national license, ii) regional license and, iii) local license.
As of July 2011, the first step of selection process was half-way complete, i.e., the first of the two name lists was finalized and was passed to the senate for selection. After the two name lists are combined, the senate will be notified and will eventually select NBTC from the two name lists. In August 2011, the two name lists were sent to the senate. The senate set up a special committee to recommend the nominees amidst allegations of wrongdoing and kick backs. The NBTC will consist of 11 members, five of whom will act as telecommunication commission, while another five commissioners will act as a broadcast commission. The chairman of NBTC is not allowed to sit in either commission.
In October 2011, the king signed in the royal appointment decree, giving birth to the first "convergence" regulator. Six out of 11 members are from the military or police while two are from civil society organizations. Three commissioners are former bureaucrats. One of the key tasks of the NBTC is to adopt at least three master plans. They are the Spectrum Master Plan, Broadcasting Master Plan, and Telecommunications Master Plan. NBTC published all three master plans at the same time to be promulgated in October 2012. In December 2013, NBTC launched the biggest auction in Thai media history for the new 24 DTTV. The first DTTV went on air in the second quarter of 2014. In May 2014, there was a coup d'état and the military Jjnta amended the NBTC Act to require the return of proceeds from the DTTV auction to the public purse. The junta also issued an amendment on community radio, which gives absolute power to NBTC to license (or revoke licenses) existing community radio stations.
Print media Readerships for newspapers and magazines dropped by seven percent between 2013 and 2015. Only 50.1% of Thais aged 15–24 said they read magazines in 2015, down from 61.7% in 2013. Print subscriptions are declining as more people read on their mobile devices. Ad spending fell by 14.28% to 4.22 billion baht (US$118 million) for magazines and by 6.45% to 12.33 billion baht (US$345 million) for newspapers. Yet total ad spending for print is 16.55 billion baht (US$463 million), still higher than 9,869 million (US$276 million) in digital, according to Digital Advertising Association of Thailand.
Ad revenues for both newspapers and magazines has been in a nosedive since at least 2012. Ad spending in newspapers has declined from 15,183 million baht in 2012 to 8,164 in 2016 (as of October 2016). Magazine ad spending has declined from 5,221 million baht to 2,510 million baht over the same period.
Newspapers In contrast to television, newspapers in Thailand are subject to little governmental supervision. Readers have a choice of numerous papers, ranging from sensationalist mass-circulation dailies to newspapers specializing in coverage of political and business. Since the country's modernization in the mid-nineteenth century, the Thai government started to issue newspapers. Due to the low literary rate among the Thai at the time, newspaper businesses were not profitable and many had to cease their circulation. The oldest newspaper of record, which is still in publication, is the Royal Thai Government Gazette which started its publication in 1858.
New restrictive guidelines for receiving and renewing foreign media work visas went into effect on 21 March 2016. At the time, there was concern from journalists that the guidelines would effectively end the longstanding role of the country as a benign host for freelance reporters and photographers.
Thailand's so-called "business newspapers" also include substantial coverage of politics and culture. The two largest English newspapers are printed in broadsheet format, although there are several exceptions to this. These other mass-circulation newspapers are often referred to as "tabloids", and are the Phuket Gazette and Pattaya Mail.
With the exception of one newspaper in Chiang Mai and one in Hua Hin (Hua Hin Today), all daily papers are published in Bangkok and distributed to all parts of the country.
The political leanings of Thai newspapers can be categorized according to how they relate to the democracy movement of the 1970s. The mainstream print media are represented by Thai Rath and Daily News, which together account for half of Thailand's newspaper sales. Because both papers were founded while the country was still under military rule, by necessity, they cultivated good relationships with the army and elite bureaucracy. This has led them to develop an editorial outlook that tends to lean in favor of the status quo. Thus, these publications are viewed as "conservative" within the Thai political spectrum.McCargo, Duncan (26–31 March 1999). "Media and Democratic Transitions in Southeast Asia (PDF) , ECPR Joint Sessions Mannheim. On the other hand, newspapers that grew out of the student movement of the 1970s such as Matichon tend to adopt an anti-establishment outlook. Therefore, within the Thai political spectrum, they can be loosely characterized as "progressive."