Thailand's front page horror show
Academics try to tame Thai newspapers' taste for gruesome page-one photos
BANGKOK — Each morning, Thailand’s newspaper racks offer a gallery of gore.
Few days pass without a corpse, face-down and blood-soaked, appearing on Thai newspapers’ front pages. Equally common are accident scenes, with unlucky drivers spilling lifelessly from their totaled cars.
The most recent Sunday edition of popular newspaper Khao Sod decorated its front page with this sensational cocktail: a meth dealer splayed dead beside a toilet, a married couple shot dead and slumped in their pick-up truck — and for comic relief, photos exposing a con artist who donned flight uniforms to deceive shopkeepers and women.
“They’re just trying to sell papers,” said Ratchanee Poowong, a Bangkok auto parts dealer. “The photos do attract your attention. You wonder, ay, what’s all this about?”
Now, a group of academics is petitioning Thai papers to choose restraint over grisly voyeurism. The professors, from six Thai universities, present a familiar set of complaints. Beyond arguing on grounds of taste, they say these images corrupt children or needlessly shame victims of violent crime.
Their campaign to tame the front page will be hard to win, said Yubol Benjarongkij, dean of the communication arts department at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
“I won’t say we’ll be successful,” she said. “The (publishers) think these picture make big sales. It’s hard to change that belief.”
Even against a daily backdrop of crime scene photos, recent published images went beyond the pale, Yubol said. The professor was dismayed by pictures of charred bodies outside of the burned-down Santika dance hall, which made global headlines in January.
She was equally disturbed by photos of a suicide-by-hanging off the busy Rama IV bridge. Newspapers ran photos of the man’s decapitated head, severed by inertia after the jump and swinging eerily over onlookers below.
Recent on Thailand :
Tweeting from Fugitiveland
Patrick Winn - Thailand - November 2, 2009 06:35 ET
Thailand's ex-premier is on the run. And he wants the Twitterati to know about it.
Child sex boom fueled by poverty
Deena Guzder - Thailand - October 29, 2009 11:24 ET
It's just another dark day in Thailand.
Fake Viagra, and more, in Bangkok
Patrick Winn - Thailand - October 23, 2009 08:54 ET
Pharmo-piracy sweeps Thailand, and the rest of Southeast Asia. It's a deadly problem.
.jpg)
A World of Trouble: Is the nightmare over?
Thomas Mucha - Commerce - October 14, 2009 13:35 ET
With signs of economic recovery finally emerging, here's where things stand in 20 countries around the world.
On Location: Bangkok — Heal Thailand with love
Patrick Winn and Pailin Wedel - Thailand - October 14, 2009 11:20 ET
Why this face frightens the average Thai
Patrick Winn - Thailand - October 10, 2009 09:05 ET
Thais have a fear of illegal immigrants that parallels that of Americans. The UN wants to change that.
Thailand's country music megastar
Patrick Winn - Thailand - September 22, 2009 08:58 ET
Paper airplane, or paper tiger?
Patrick Winn - Thailand - September 12, 2009 07:28 ET
Meet Mong Thongdee, a 12-year-old "security threat" in Thailand.
News analysis: Malaysian model drinks beer, asks to be caned
Thomas Mucha - Commerce - August 24, 2009 06:25 ET
The wacky story of the week comes from, where else, Asia?
The great elephant exodus
Patrick Winn - Thailand - August 15, 2009 13:53 ET
Video: Bangkok's governor promises an elephant-free city by next summer. Fat chance?
Meet the economic gangsters
Mark Scheffler - Commerce - August 12, 2009 09:03 ET
Economic gangsters come in all shapes and sizes — they're Asian dictators and Somali pirates.
Doing business in Thailand? Please ignore the burning bus.
Patrick Winn - Thailand - August 7, 2009 07:23 ET
Thailand is more competitive than India or South Korea. Will anyone notice through the haze of protests?
Supernatural Thailand
Patrick Winn - Thailand - July 30, 2009 08:28 ET
Please don't wear purple, red or orange. Tusks pulled from jungle pigs are fine.
Fears of a nuclear Burma
Patrick Winn - Thailand - July 22, 2009 12:15 ET
The evidence, the conspirators and one "very concerned" Hillary Clinton
Noodle cart 2.0
Patrick Winn - Thailand - July 16, 2009 05:40 ET
Bangkok's legendary street food gets a makeover. That means you, squidsmith.
You've been Punk'd. Thailand-style.
Patrick Winn - Thailand - June 29, 2009 07:11 ET
How hidden camera pranksters conquered Thailand's box office.
Teachercide in Thailand
Patrick Winn - Thailand - June 25, 2009 06:04 ET
Why Thailand’s Muslim separatists target educators for murder
The week's other crackdown: the Karen
Patrick Winn - Thailand - June 22, 2009 21:12 ET
In Burma, a violent exodus for US-linked separatists
Reporter's Notebook
Most journalists I know hate the word "dialogue." Mostly because it's a favorite of uncooperative or boring interviewees. You ask a...Read more >
Discovered in a Northeast Thai town so tiny it's not on the map: a bar with the most confounding name ever. Oh! Bar Mark: Chill Restaurant I'm...Read more >
Journalists on assignment in Bangkok often turn out amazing prose. It's a glittering, messy and alluring city that tends to inspire. Trouble is,...Read more >
Featured: Special Projects
After the Fall:
20 years since the Berlin Wall came down
Life, Death and the Taliban:
Videos and stories
Study Abroad:
Students report from the road
Living in the Shadows:
An intimate look at China's migrant workers
A World of Trouble:
The global economy in 20 hotspots
Global Blogs:
Comments:
No Comments.
Login or Register to post comments