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| Nick Nostitz. Image via www.fm91bkk.com |
A German reporter was allegedly attacked by rally guards while covering anti-government protests in Dusit district.
Nick Nostitz, a freelance journalist who has lived and worked in Thailand since 1993, filed a complaint about the incident with duty officer Pol Lt Pongsak Jumpaeng at Phaya Thai police station on Monday.Meanwhile the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand claimed:
An accredited foreign journalist was today assaulted by anti-government protesters while doing his job covering the ongoing protests. Details are not clear but initial reports say a speaker from the stage singled him out, triggering the assault.Of course, Nick Nostitz is not really "foreign," nor is he a "journalist." He is a long-time resident of Thailand, and his work is editorial, if not entirely biased propaganda. This is admitted even by his own colleges, including Pravit Rojanaphruk of Thailand's "The Nation" English newspaper. Pravit in an article titled, "View from the red shore," which praised and promoted one of Nostitz' books, admits Nostitz is "sympathetic" to the red shirts - red shirts being the title given to supporters of deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose sister, Yingluck Shinawatra is now sitting in for him as Thailand's current Prime Minster (for more background information, see here).
The FCCT which rushed to Nostitz' defense, is likewise not in any way an impartial organization, with its board of directors a representation of corporate-financier media interests active across Asia Pacific, from Australia's ABC, AFP, Associated Press, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and GlobalPost, and its activities in Thailand in particular, a veiled assault on its ancient institutions through conferences attacking Section 112 of Thailand's Constitution.
That foreign corporate media interests are attacking Thailand's Constitution to the benefit of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra should come as no surprise. Thaksin Shinawatra is the beneficiary of an extensive Western corporate lobbying campaign stretching back as far as 2006 and continuing until today. The goal is to establish a proxy government headed by Thaksin Shinawatra, which would then open Thailand up to Wall Street and London at the expense of Thailand's sovereignty and economic stability.
Nostitz is regularly featured on, and affiliated with, US State Department-funded Prachatai, so often that he has a whole category dedicated to his name. He is also associated with Australia's National University's "New Mandala" blog maintained by crypto-lobbyist Andrew Walker. The blog itself is a clearinghouse for corporate subsidized talking points regarding Southeast Asia and is tied to the corporate-financier funded Lowy Institute. Some "contributing writers" even include Thaksin Shinawatra's hired lobbyist, Robert Amsterdam. That Nostitz' biased slant is featured side-by-side with corporate lobbyists working directly for Thaksin Shinawtra lay to rest any debate over whether or not he is a "journalist." He most certainly is not.
Looking for Trouble
Current protests against the proxy government of Wall Street-backed Thaksin Shinawatra have lasted weeks and have now grown to unprecedented proportions with at times, hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets. Until now, and with so many people on the streets, there have been no incidents. Readers must ask themselves what the chances are that this is the first incident of unprovoked violence by the protesters - and it just so happened to involve a compromised, dishonest pro-government propagandist, masquerading as a "journalist" and attempting to enter a protest he openly opposes? The chances are slim. What is more likely is that Nostitz and his affiliates intended to tarnish the protests and hinder their momentum by creating a minor incident and leveraging their foreign supporters' pull in the international press to blow the incident out of proportion.
The likes of Nostitz and all that he orbits with around Thaksin Shinwatra and his foreign backers, must be watched with vigilance. When these characters use poor judgement and approach anti-government protests, protest leaders must ensure professional security personal are able to escort them away from the potential trouble they seek to create as quickly as possible. They must also be quick to present their side of the story, in both Thai and more importantly, in English, before Nostitz' powerful employers propagate their narrative first.
Wall Street's geopolitical aspirations have seen a series of stunning setbacks from Egypt and Syria, to Malaysia, and now in the streets of Bangkok where their once unassailable proxy, Thaksin Shinawatra, faces an irreversible existential threat. What measures they are willing to take to salvage their crumbling holdings remains to be seen, but they should not be underestimated.
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