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 :
Special Report
Thomas Mucha - Commerce - January 28, 2010 17:24 ET
20 correspondents, 20 countries and a world of pain. Meet the ground truth of the global economic crisis.
Will Thailand seize the Thaksin fortune?
Patrick Winn - Thailand - January 25, 2010 06:38 ET
A ruling next month on fugitive ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra could spark fresh violence.
Man, woman or something else?
Patrick Winn - Thailand - January 22, 2010 08:35 ET
Thailand: This smile might kill you
Patrick Winn - Thailand - January 14, 2010 06:41 ET
Thai teen girls think braces are cute. They're also deadly.
Travel hot spots: From paradise to hell?
Mitch Moxley - Global Green - January 11, 2010 06:52 ET
Things are getting ugly at Boracay, one of Asia's worst kept secrets.
Economic worries in Indonesia? Blame the Chinese.
Peter Gelling - Indonesia - January 10, 2010 07:56 ET
A new regional trade deal raises tensions between two rising economic powers.
Thailand: Stay off my rice paddy
Patrick Winn - Thailand - January 7, 2010 06:33 ET
As wealthy foreigners scoop up Asian farms, Thailand says no way.
Burma: Is that conflict timber on your patio?
Patrick Winn - Thailand - December 28, 2009 06:40 ET
Importing Burmese timber is supposed to be illegal. So why are U.S. furniture dealers marketing "Burmese Teak?"
8 wacky holiday traditions
Laurie Cunningham - America and the World - December 23, 2009 08:32 ET
Americans aren't the only ones whose traditions are a cause for raised eyebrows.
Thailand, where Santa is the father of Jesus
Patrick Winn - Thailand - December 17, 2009 06:56 ET
Video: Ho, ho...huh? Welcome to holly, jolly Bangkok.
Putsch Shy in Thailand
Patrick Winn - Thailand - December 14, 2009 16:18 ET
Where coups are as frequent as U.S. elections, can the military exercise restraint? A January uprising is the next test.
Sea slaves in Asia
Ashley Herendeen (Boston College) - Study Abroad - November 29, 2009 11:06 ET
Human traffickers kidnap men to work on fishing vessels.
The Dog Meat Mafia: Corruption
Patrick Winn - Thailand - November 27, 2009 10:51 ET
The dark underbelly of a booming trade in dog meat
The Dog Meat Mafia: Conscience
Patrick Winn - Thailand - November 27, 2009 10:51 ET
Is Southeast Asia's booming dog meat industry animal cruelty? Or taking out society's trash?
Special Report: The Dog Meat Mafia
Patrick Winn - Thailand - November 27, 2009 10:31 ET
Inside the seedy world of Southeast Asia's booming dog meat trade
.jpg)
The ethical dilemma in your holiday stocking
Thomas Mucha - Commerce - November 27, 2009 08:43 ET
Do you know who made your iPhone? And does it matter?
Why white skin is all the rage in Asia
Phillip Martin - China and its neighbors - November 26, 2009 12:03 ET
From pills to lasers to cream, what's fueling the boom in skin-whitening procedures across the continent?
What's Thai for Chicago-style politics?
Patrick Winn - Thailand - November 24, 2009 06:45 ET
Philip Guentert has taken on Rod "Blago" Blagojevich and other Chicago pols. But can he help corruption-plagued Thailand?
Watch GlobalPost videos:
Reporter's Notebook
I remember the first time I brushed past a Thai teenager wearing a blood-red swastika on his T-shirt on the streets of Bangkok. I cringed with...Read more >
When my cousin inquired over Christmas whether she'd be held hostage by police-sanctioned bandits for shopping in the Bangkok airport's duty-free...Read more >
About this time last year, I was sitting in a musty hotel room in Northeast Thailand, a coil of dried dog meat resting on my...Read more >
Featured: Special Projects
Oceans:
Assessing their health
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
Comments:
No Comments.
Login or Register to post comments