Bangkok: After 'Dr. Pirongrong' of the NBTC was sentenced to prison by the lower court for issuing a warning letter for inserting advertisements on the True ID platform, which is an offense under Section 157, today the civil society network organized a forum and announced 5 points of action in this case.
According to Thai News Agency, The Campaign for Democracy (CDRP), the Economic Democracy Network, and the Civil Society Network jointly organized a public opinion forum on Dr. Pirongrong's case. Representatives from many civil society organizations joined the forum.
Mr. Metha Maskhao, Secretary-General of the NBTC, summarized the 5 main points of the civil society movement that will continue, including: I would like to encourage Dr. Pirongrong to perform her duty to protect the people honestly and protect the benefits of the people. The case of Dr. Pirongrong has affected many industries and may have consequences in the performance of duties of various agencies for the people. We will open a forum to push for awareness and call for the reform of the NBTC because currently there are internal problems and lawsuits in many cases. There are doubtful allegations and many facts about this case that there is interference by capital groups. Is there a lawsuit to shut them up? From now on, other subcommittees will not dare to protect the benefits of the people. There is also interference in many state organizations. There are allegations that the Secretary-General appointed a person with the same last name as the executive of the opposing company to be a person to access meeting information. Is this considered a conflict of interest?
Ms. Rosana Tositrakul, a former senator, said that if Section 157 is violated in this case, it must be the NBTC, which has a duty to protect the public's interests, not Dr. Pirongrong, who is a party to the dispute, because it has performed its duties honestly as requested by others. This incident reflects the loopholes in the NBTC's regulations that must be corrected, and it also shows the irregularities of whether the NBTC is dominated by capitalists or not. Ms. Rosana also claimed that there was an attempt to make Dr. Pirongrong resign in exchange for dropping all lawsuits. The lawsuit and the resulting incidents are therefore an act of intimidation to create fear of protecting the public's interests.