Please read and circulate to as many people as you know. The truth must be told. We have been here first hand. We know and confirm the stories that have been told about the Red Shirts. We have seen on television their acts of arson, looting, harassment, and abuse. Most of all, we have experienced in our own lives their concept of urban terrorism.
Happy Birthday CNN, may wisdom come with age.
Dear Sirs/Madams,
Recently, CNN Thailand Correspondents Dan Rivers and Sarah Snider have made
me seriously reconsider your agency as a source for reliable and accurate
unbiased news. As of this writing, over thousands of CNN’s viewers have
already begun to question the accuracy and dependability of its reporting as
regards events in Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Iran, etc., in addition to
Bangkok.
As a first-rate global news agency, CNN has an inherent professional duty to
deliver *all sides* of the truth to the global public who have faithfully
and sincerely placed their trust and reliance in you. Your news network, by
its longtime transnational presence and extensive reach, has been put in a
position of trust and care; CNN’s journalists, reporters, and researchers
have a collective responsibility to follow the journalist’s code and ethics
to deliver and present facts from all facets of the story, not merely
one-sided, shallow and sensational half-truths. The magnitude of harm or
potential extent of damage that erroneous and fallacious news reporting can
cause to (and exacerbate), not only a country’s internal state of affairs,
economic well-being, and general international perception, but also the real
lives and livelihood of the innocent and voiceless people of that nation, is
enormous. CNN should not negligently discard its duty of care to the
international populace by reporting single-sided or unverified facts and
distorted truths drawn from superficial research, or display/distribute
biased images which capture only one side of the actual event.
Mr. Rivers and Ms. Snider have NOT done their best under these
life-threatening circumstances because many other foreign correspondents
have done better. All of Mr. Rivers and Ms. Sniders’ quotes and statements
seem to have been solely taken from the anti-government protest leaders or
their followers/sympathizers. Yet, all details about the government’s
position have come from secondary resources. No direct interviews with
government officials have been shown; no interviews or witness statements
from ordinary Bangkok residents or civilians unaffiliated with the
protesters, particularly those who have been harassed by or suffered at the
hands of the protesters, have been circulated.
Why the discrepancy in source of information? Why the failure to report all
of the government’s previous numerous attempts to negotiate or invitations
for protesters to go home? Why no broadcasts shown of the myriad ways the
red protesters have terrorized and harmed innocent civilians by burning
their shops, enclosing burning tyres around apartment buildings, shooting
glass marbles at civilians from high altitudes, attacking civilians in their
cars, and worst of all, obstructing paramedics and ambulances carrying
civilians injured by M79 grenade blasts during the Silom incident of April
24, 2010, thereby resulting in the sole civilian casualty? The entire
timeline of events that have forced the government to take this difficult
stance has been hugely and callously ignored in deference to the red
‘underdogs’.
Mr. Rivers and Ms. Snider’s choice of sensational vocabulary and terminology
in every newscast or news report, and choice of images to broadcast, has
resulted in law-abiding soldiers and the heavily-pressured Thai government
being painted in a negative, harsh, and oppressive light, whereas the
genuinely violent and law-breaking arm of the anti-government protesters -
who are directly responsible for overt acts of aggression not only against
armed soldiers but also against helpless, unarmed civilians and law-abiding
apolitical residents of this once blooming metropolis (and whose actions
under American law would by now be classified as terrorist activities) – are
portrayed as righteous freedom fighters deserving of worldwide sympathy and
support. This has mislead the various international Human Rights watchdogs
to believe the Thai government are sending trigger-happy soldiers out to
ruthlessly murder unarmed civilians without just cause.
As a current resident of “war zone” Bangkok who has experienced the effect
of the Red protests first hand and is living in a state of constant terror
and anxiety as to whether her family, friends, and home would get bombed or
attacked by the hardcore anti-government vigilantes/paramilitary forces – I
appeal to CNN’s professional integrity to critically investigate and
scrutinize the misinformed news reporting of your above-named
correspondents. If they are incapable of obtaining genuine, authentic facts
from any other source except the Red Protest leaders and red-sympathizing
Thai translators or acquaintances, or from fellow non-Thai-speaking
journalists who are similarly ignorant of Thai language, culture, history,
and society, then perhaps CNN should consider reassigning field
correspondents to Thailand.
I implore and urge you to please take serious action to correct or reverse
the grave injustice that has been done to the Thai nation, her government,
and the majority of law-abiding Thai citizens and expatriate residents by
having endorsed and widely circulated poorly researched and misrepresented
news coverage of the current ongoing political unrest and escalating
violence in Thailand.
Copies of this open letter have also been distributed to other local as well
as international news media and social networks for public information.
Please feel free to contact me further should you require any additional
concrete and reputable evidence in substantiation and corroboration of my
complaints and claims stated hereinabove.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Napas Na Pombejra, B.A., LL.B. (Lond.)
Bangkok, Thailand
May 17, 2010
