The International Press Institute (IPI) on 26 May called on the government of Thailand to launch as a matter of urgency a full and transparent investigation into the killing and wounding of journalists during violent clashes between ‘Red Shirt’ protestors and the army in April and May of this year.
The violence in Thailand claimed the lives of two journalists, and injured at least five more.
Despite calls from international organizations, including IPI, no arrests have been made.
One of the journalists shot during the clashes was Dutch reporter Michel Maas, who reports for Netherlands Radio Worldwide (NWR) and the Volkskrant newspaper – also based in the Netherlands. He was shot in the shoulder during the chaos that surrounded the assault on Red Shirt barricades by the Thai army.
Maas was with the Red Shirt protestors when the army began its assault. At the time he told Leen Verraeke, an editor at Volkskrant told IPI by phone, that the biggest danger was the army, “because they shoot everything that’s moving and don’t ask if you are a reporter before shooting.”
IPI recently conducted a Q&A with Maas:
IPI: What was it like for journalists reporting on the unrest that gripped Thailand for weeks?
MM: The main problem was to find out what was really going on on the ground. Thai media were almost all under the control of the government, including ‘independent’ newspapers The Nation and The Bangkok Post. Especially reporting by The Nation was nothing better than ‘anti-Reds-propaganda’. That made the task of international reporters much more important – and difficult.
Also the international press agencies sometimes followed the local media. So since there were no reliable sources of information, one had to have eyes and ears everywhere, and check every bit of information more than once.
Practically, working was somewhat inhibited by checkpoints, especially those of the military. I got stopped more than once, and a couple of times the soldiers insisted that I take no pictures in Bangkok. Apparently they particularly didn’t like photographers (which I am not, I am a correspondent for Dutch national broadcaster ‘NOS’ and national newspaper De Volkskrant).
The military issued several warnings that journalists, and especially foreign journalists were ‘a target’ of unnamed armed ‘terrorists’. There were rumours that the Red Shirts harassed journalists and warnings not to go into the Red Shirt Camp. Though I know the Red Shirts did harass one or two local journalists, and that some international journalists at some point were stopped from entering the place, or forced to leave, I myself did not encounter any such hostility. I rather felt the warnings as an attempt to keep journalists away from the Red Shirts. I visited the Camp, which was located right next to my hotel, several times a day and was received in an extremely friendly way. I could report freely and interview whomever I wanted. Even at times when things got ‘hot’.
IPI: What exactly happened to you in Bangkok on May 19, 2010?
MM: I saw on television that the army had started to open the barricade at the ‘Silom’ side of the Red Shirt camp. I entered the camp from the other side, which was approximately two kilometers from Silom. On this side everything was quiet. Red Shirts were following the events on television, while on the center stage speeches by their leaders were going on.
I walked all the way to the other end, to see the military come in. When I was about 200 meters from the barricade I saw smoke, and after a while in the smoke soldiers came in on foot. Red Shirts prepared small Molotov cocktails and sharpened bamboo sticks to fight them off. I saw one man with a rather antique handgun. Even this close to the front line there was no sign of the ‘heavy weapons’ the Red Shirts were supposed to have, according to the government media.
By that time I had joined a group of about twenty other international journalists who were watching the scene with me. We were taking cover at the corner of a building, or behind trees, but nobody seemed really worried. On other occasions the military started by firing teargas and shots in the air to disperse the protesters.
But not this time.
The shooting started while I was in the middle of a radio report. Shots were fired from one side: the military – and they were not aimed at the sky. Red Shirts and journalists started running. I ran too, because experience has taught me that in these situations it’s best to follow the locals, who have been through all the previous battles and know when it gets really dangerous.
But this time I probably made the wrong choice. By running away I had to leave the cover of the building, and get out in the open. I got shot in the back. It didn’t knock me down, so I kept running, and after 200 meters somebody hoisted me on the back of a motorbike that rushed me to the police hospital which was on the site.
I was extremely lucky. The bullet (apparently an M16) missed my lungs by half an inch, hit my shoulder and some ribs, and stopped in my muscle tissue, where it still is, waiting for an operation to take it out. The Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi was less lucky. He died on almost the same spot where I got hit. One Canadian freelance journalist seems to have been wounded on the same spot and at the same time too.
IPI: Who do you believe shot you?
MM: I have no doubt whatsoever that it was the Thai army that shot me. No one else was shooting, as far as I could tell. The army had snipers on the ‘Skytrain’ over our heads, and soldiers in the Park just in front of us, covering the entire front line area. And troops were advancing from the direction from where I was shot.
The relatively high number of international casualties, and the earlier warnings issued by the military, raise the suspicion that international journalists might have been a target indeed, not by ‘terrorists’ but by the military. They cannot say that they couldn’t tell the difference between Red Shirts and journalists.
I myself clearly stood out in the crowd, by my length (I am a lot taller than the average Thai), by my clothes, and the color of my hair and skin. Fabio Polenghi was wearing a bulletproof vest and a helmet, also distinguishing him clearly from the protesters. The only defense they might have is that they were firing indiscriminately into the crowd (not over their heads. I got hit below the shoulder, and Fabio Polenghi got shot in the stomach.)
IPI: What does the incident tell you about the manner in which journalists were viewed by the protagonists?
MM: I wouldn’t know what to answer on this question. I have heard complaints that international journalists were siding too much with the protesters, and apparently the military didn’t like the way we reported on earlier violent events which ended in total failure for the government troops. This may have led them to consider journalists who were inside the Red Shirt camp as collaborators of some sort, which might have given them a reason to shoot at us as well as at the protesters.
IPI: How should the protagonists have viewed journalists?
MM: As people whom they should have to protect, even during an attack. They could have issued a warning; they should have given the journalists a chance to leave the area. But nothing of the sort happened. They just opened fire, without warning.
IPI: What were the reactions of the Dutch and Thai authorities following the shootings?
MM: The Thai ministry of Tourism sent me an email in which it offered to cover all the costs of my treatment. But I reckon that was more a courtesy to foreigners in general, to save the image of Thailand as a tourism destination.
I had a long and pleasant conversation with the Dutch ambassador in Bangkok, Mr Tjaco van den Hout, who said he had advised the Dutch government to ask for clarification by the Thai government. I haven’t yet checked whether that has been done already. I have no information about it.
IPI: Has there been an official investigation into who shot you? If so, has it made any headway?
MM: There has been no official investigation to my knowledge. Neither has there been a general police report about what happened.
IPI: As far as you know, what is the situation for journalists in Thailand today?
MM: In general there is press freedom in Thailand. But it is hard to tell how far this freedom stretches. Media are either imposing heavy self-censorship on themselves or they are under the active control of the government. And then there is this one subject no one is allowed to write about freely: His Majesty the King.
IPI: What advice would you give other journalists about covering conflicts?
MM: Every conflict is different. You just have to be cautious all the time and find a local person (fixer) whom you can trust.
Maybe the only other advice I can give is: bring your bulletproof vest (I didn’t) and wear it. But don’t place too much trust in it, because it doesn’t make you invulnerable. Fabio Polenghi was wearing one when he was shot dead.
