Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Thailand: Lobbyists Posing as "Journalists" Endanger True Journalism

September 15, 2015 (Tony Cartalucci - ATN) Pravit Rojanaphruk was again summoned by Thai government this week. Anti-government groups, including foreign-funded NGOs have condemned his summoning, including The Thai Journalists Association (TJA) - part of the US, EU, and Open Society-funded Southeast Asian Press Alliance - who released a statement yesterday urging the government "to free Pravit and clarify its action, which "not only threatened the Thai people's right of expression but also affected the country's image"" claimed the Nation.

Image: Pravit Rojanaphruk is not a journalist.  His talk at the Oslo Freedom Forum covers the 2014 coup - but omits any mention of what led to the coup or who the coup even ousted from power. Such omissions cannot be defined as "journalism," and are instead, clearly examples of overt lobbying. 
Also according to the Nation, the US State Department's National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funded Thai Lawyers for Human Rights accompanied Rojanaphruk as he was summoned. The Nation reports in its article, "Groups call for release of senior 'Nation' reporter," that:
Pavinee Chumsri from Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, who accompanied Pravit on Sunday to report to the NCPO, said yesterday that Pravit had asked her to act as his lawyer and an observer when he went to the First Army Area Command. But she was not able to enter.
After waiting for an hour, she was told that Pravit had been taken to another place. But the military officer would not say where and how long Pravit would be detained.
However, both Rojanaphruk himself, and the foreign-funded lobbying fronts posing as journalistic organizations and "rights" advocates, are not engaged in "free speech," but rather systematic fraud and propaganda designed to spread hysteria and division across Thai society, aiding and abetting the ousted regime of Thaksin Shianwatra and his violent political front.


In the wake of the 2014 coup, Rojanaphruk would have an all-expense paid trip to Oslo, Norway to attend the US and European-funded Oslo Freedom Forum - a front created to put on display and portray the US State Department's paid political proxies as defenders of freedom and democracy.

Rojanaphruk's talk covered the events immediately following the coup, and would attempt to portray Thailand's military as simply seizing power to deny the Thai people their rights. Lying by omission, Rojanaphruk portrayed Thailand in front of an international audience as ruled by an irrational dictatorship hungry for power and eager to silence its critics.

Rojanaphruk's talk failed to mention any of the events that led up to the coup in 2014, nor was any mention at all made of the regime the military ousted from power.

Image: By failing to mention or condemn the violence carried out by the opposition Pravit Rojanaphruk is clearly a part of, he is as guilty of the murder and mayhem it regularly carries out. This is not only not "journalism," it is unforgivable. 
The 2014 coup ousted the regime of Thaksin Shinawatra - a mass murdering, convicted criminal who was literally and very openly running the country through his own sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, appointed Prime Minister in his absence as he is currently in exile primarily in Dubai, United Arab Emirates where he is evading arrest and a two-year jail sentence.

During Shinawatra's time in power from 2001-2006 over 3,000 innocent people would be mass murdered - mainly during a 90-day "War on Drugs" he ordered in 2003. Another 85 would be killed in a single day the following year, and according to Amnesty International, several human rights advocates would be assassinated or disappeared during his first 4-year term in office. In 2009 and again in 2010, Shinawatra would fill Bangkok's streets with murderous mobs that rioted and attacked and destroyed the city. That latter riot would feature 300 heavily armed militants brandishing AK47s, M16s, M79 40mm grenade launchers, hand grenades, and even rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) tipping off gun battles in the streets that would claim nearly 100 lives.

In the months leading up to the most recent coup, Shinawatra again deployed these militants who attacked almost nightly, large protests calling for the ouster of his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra. Shinawatra's terrorists would leave nearly 30 men, women, and children dead before the military finally intervened.

Image: Shinawatra's death squads left nearly 30 men, women, and children dead during the 2013-2014 protests against his sister's proxy regime before the Thai military finally ousted her from power. Rojanaphruk's omission of this, and his characterization of the current government as a "dictatorship" is disingenuous at best, collaborating with the terrorists at worst
Shinawatara in no way represented freedom or democracy - but rather the shameless use of both as facades behind which massive corruption, abuse of power, and mass murder took place.

Pravit Rojanaphruk's characterization of Thailand's political crisis both in Oslo, and daily through both the Nation which he works for, and across his own personal social media accounts, not only is patently false, but serves to directly aid and abet the criminal forces of Thaksin Shinawatra and his foreign sponsors seeking to seize, divide, and destroy Thailand. His efforts work in tandem with foreign funded lobbying efforts both across Western state propaganda including the BBC, and literally paid lobbying fronts including Thaksin Shinawatra's own personal lobbying front headed by Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam & Peroff.

Thailand's Opposition Isn't Thai 

It should be noted that while Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam & Peroff currently represents Thaksin Shinawatra, Shinawatra has enjoyed significant support from the West for years with some of the largest lobbying fronts in Washington attempting to assist him in seizing back power since 2006.

This includes Kenneth Adelman who currently chairs above mentioned NED's Freedom House subsidiary. That representatives of the NED have directly lobbied for Thaksin Shinawatra, and now also have arrayed various "human rights" and "pro-democracy" fronts in Thailand against the current government on his behalf, represents a disturbing conflict of interest - exposing many of the groups that appear as "Thai opposition" as merely Thai nominees for what is essentially Western meddling in Thailand's internal politics.

Image: Pravit Rojanaphruk admittedly collaborates with the US government-funded front "Prachatai" seen here posing with the US Ambassador shortly before her resignation. Rojanaphruk has consistently aided and abetted Prachatai in its bid to conceal is foreign funding from the Thai public - and to this day its foreign funding is not disclosed in Thai on their website.
The very Oslo Freedom Forum Rojanaphruk attended is itself a manifestation of this use of "freedom" and "human rights" to couch global political meddling behind.

Others who have attended the Oslo Freedom Forum include participants in the US-engineered "Arab Spring" which has since degenerated into a US-backed region-wide proxy war fought by Western armed groups including Al Qaeda and the "Islamic State" (ISIS) on one side, and America's embattled enemies on the other.

It also includes Venezuela's Leopoldo López who was recently sentenced to 13 years in jail for leading deadly Shinawatra-style mobs in the streets. López was literally represented by a legal team afforded to him by the US State Department via the Perseus Strategies lobbying front, as revealed by Foreign Policy magazine.

Image: Rebiya Kadeer of the US State Department-funded, Washington and Munich based World Uyghur Congress is another "alumni" of the Oslo Freedom Forum. Her shameless lobbying group regularly coddles and defends terrorism carried out both in China and abroad, perpetrated by US-NATO backed militants like the "Grey Wolves," most recently implicated in the devastating August bombing in Bangkok. Her World Uyghur Congress also led mobs that destroyed the Thai consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in July. 
US State Department-funded Bersih's Ambiga Sreenevasan of Malaysia, and Bersih's defacto leader, Anwar Ibrahim - a regular participant of US NED events in Washington D.C.- have both spoken at the Oslo Freedom Forum as has Rebiya Kadeer of the Washington and Munich-based, US NED funded World Uyghur Congress, which in fact led mobs recently in Turkey, resulting in the attack and destruction of Thailand's consulate in Istanbul.

It is clear that Rojanaphruk himself, though he has repeatedly claimed otherwise, is directly involved in a global network of political sedition directly underwritten and ceaselessly promoted by the US government and Western media organizations. This includes his admitted contributions to and collaboration with US NED funded Prachatai. He has played a prominent role in covering up Prachatai's foreign funding from Thai readers, all while assisting them and the foreign interests that fund them in repeating their daily mantra of lies aimed at Thailand - both at its current government and Thailand's very institutions themselves - institutions Pravit and others like him see themselves replacing with the various foreign-funded NGOs they are directly involved with.

At the very least, Rojanaphruk should be condemned for posing as a "journalist" when he is so clearly engaged in lobbying. At worst, Rojanaphruk is serving as a willing participant in Thailand's foreign-funded opposition, intentionally omitting the criminality of Shinawatra and his accomplices and intentionally mischaracterizing the Thai government's response to this criminality as "oppression" and "dictatorship" in a bid to destabilize and overthrow Thailand's political order and its sovereign institutions.  

The current government has only failed in so much as it has allowed itself to fall into the trap laid out by disingenuous lobbyists like Rojanaphruk and his accomplices. As each is undoubtedly financially tied directly to foreign interests, or heavily dependent on foreign funded NGOs and other fronts which are directly tied abroad, Thailand would benefit greatly by introducing legislation similar to that recently introduced in Russia forcing foreign-funded NGOs to disclose publicly and often their funding.

With this information disclosed, lobbyists like Rojanaphruk will be unable to couch their disingenuous political agendas behind the guise of genuine "activism" and "journalism," diminishing the legitimacy with which they attempt to peddle their lobbying and exposing their opposition as the foreign meddling it truly is.

Pravit Rojanaphruk - if exposed as the eager sycophant of foreign interests meddling in Thailand - could be free to say anything he wishes - as the public would finally get the truth "journalists" like himself have intentionally denied their readership throughout their ignominious careers for so long. The public, with full disclosure, would be more than capable of identifying Rojanaphruk for what he really is, and would be less likely to be the victims of the abuse he is guilty of.