Bangkok Post edit
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Bangkok Post edit
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| Bangkok Post | |
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 The 60th anniversary edition of the Bangkok Post. |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Broadsheet |
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| Owner | Post Publishing Public Co. Ltd. |
| Publisher | Kowit Sanandang |
| Editor | Pichai Chuensuksawadi, editor-in-chief Veera Prateepchaikul, deputy editor-in-chief Pattna Chantranontwong, editor |
| Founded | August 1, 1946 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Khlong Toei, Bangkok |
| Circulation | 75,000 |
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| Website: www.bangkokpost.net | |
The Bangkok Post is a broadsheet English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. The first issue was sold on August 1, 1946. It had four pages and cost 1 baht.
The paper was founded by Alexander MacDonald, a former OSS officer, and his Thai associate Prasit Lulitanond. Thailand at that time was the only Southeast Asian country to have a Soviet Embassy, and the American Embassy allegedly felt it needed an independent but pro-American paper to present its views. Thus, some sources claim the financing came directly from the State Department or possibly even the OSS itself.
Nevertheless, under MacDonald's stewardship, the Bangkok Post was reasonably independent and employed many young newsmen, including Peter Arnett and T. D. Allman, who later became known internationally.
In a country where media censorship is common, the Bangkok Post portrays itself as having been comparatively free. There are notable instances where this is clearly untrue and the newspaper has often been accused of self-censorship in order to avoid controversy or conflict with powerful individuals. A ubiquitous example of this is an unwillingness to criticise the Thai monarchy, which would constitute an illegal act and would, doubtlessly, be hugely unpopular as an act of lèse-majesté. Another example of self censorship, until recent years, was an unwillingness to point out influential and corrupt individuals. Yet another example of censorship was the newspaper's failure, during the Vietnam War, to report upon forays from U.S. Air Force bases in Thailand over North Vietnam and Cambodia. At the time none of these missions received coverage in the local press.
Alex MacDonald left Thailand after a military coup in the 1950s, and the newspaper was later led by Lord Roy Thomson. The paper has since changed hands. Major shareholders in Post Publishing include the Chirathivat family (owners of Central Group), the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong and GMM Grammy Pcl, Thailand's biggest media and entertainment company.
Another English newspaper of Thailand, the evening-edition Bangkok World, was begun in the 1960s, but was bought by the Bangkok Post in the late 1980s and shortly afterwards shut down.
The main competition today comes from The Nation, a Thai owned and managed newspaper that includes more campaigning journalism, is fiercely royalist and has ties to the Democrat Party and Southern Thailand. The Bangkok Post, by contrast, employs several former student activists, the so-called October people, and portrays news from an urban, middle-class point of view, styling itself as a "family newspaper." During the tenure of prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the Post largely toed the government line—at one point bowing to government pressure by firing a reporter who had exposed cracks in the runway of the prestige project Suvarnabhumi Airport along with the news editor [1]—while the Nation actively campaigned for regime change. This should, however, not be taken as all-out support for Thaksin but has its roots in the fact that the premier drew a number of October people into his government and in concerns for advertising clients. Since the military coup that deposed Thaksin in 2006, the Post has been more outspoken in its criticism of the old power clique that took over and urging a swift return to democracy.
The daily also campaigns in columns and features for an austere, reform version of Buddhism free of Thailand's traditional animist elements, which it views as superstitions, and against corruption in the official Buddhist establishment or Sangha.
The Bangkok Post was well-known for Bernard Trink's weekly Nite Owl column covering the seedy nightlife of Bangkok. Trink's column was published from 1966 (originally in the Bangkok World) until 2004, when it was discontinued. The newspaper has a lively letters page where expatriate and Thai regulars exchange opinions on local concerns.
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A special Bangkok Post website readbangkokpost.com helps Thais learn to read English by using the daily newspaper. Vocabulary, reading questions, and web resources are provided for a selection of articles every day. Articles are taken from the general news, tourism, entertainment, and business sections of the newspaper. The targeted audience includes individuals studying English by themselves as well as teachers using articles in the classroom.