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[size=6]Media 'study trip' little more than a govt bribe[/size]
Bangkok: -- If you were a journalist and were "somehow" invited on a week-long "study-trip" sponsored by the Parliament and funded by taxpayers' money - to England, France and Belgium - and which includes dining at a posh restaurant in Bloomsbury in London, a visit to the dreaming spires of Oxford, staying at the posh four-star Park Plaza Westminster Hotel overlooking Big Ben, dining on a cruise on the Seine, visiting the Louvre and more, even though you are not even a Parliament-beat reporter, would you take it?
More than 20 journalists said "yes" and took the trip, which is still unfolding as this article appears in print. Since last week there has been a barrage of questions on whether the trip, led by no less than House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont, was appropriate and justifiable.
Many odds are against Somsak and the journalists taking part in this junket, however. Four out of 25 journalists invited were from Voice TV, the pro-government and pro-red television station owned by the ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra's son, Panthongtae. And two more guests, although not full-time employees of Voice TV, are regular co-hosts of the same morning news talk show programme called 'Wake-up Thailand'. One of the pair is the editor of prachatai.com alternative online newspaper.
What's more, none from the so-called opposition media such as Thai Post, Naew Na or ASTV Manager Daily newspapers or yellow-shirt ASTV were invited except a journalist from Nation Television, a sister organisation of this newspaper.
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/586984-media-study-trip-little-more-than-a-govt-bribe-Thailand/
