Thai PBS wins Saengchai Award for best news documentary

A news documentary by Thai PBS shedding light on the life of an indigenous tribe known as maniq or sakai in southern Thailand has won the prestigious Saengchai Sunthornwat Award for best TV news documentary for 2017.

The report, entitled “Truth Uncovered: Stateless maniq”,  brought to public attention the plights suffered by this small group of indigenous people of hunter-gatherer culturein Satun province.  Though given Thai citizenship, these formerly stateless people are still being denied basic citizens’ rights and are still leading a subsistence lifestyle.

Thai PBS also won a consolation prize for its investigative news report exposing coastal encroachment by groups of influential people at Baan Don in Surat Thani.

Privy Councilor and former prime minister Gen Surayud Chulanont presided over the award presentation organized by the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association and the Saengchai Sunthornwat Foundation.  In his speech, Gen Surayud stressed the need for the media to uphold quality reporting in this fast-changing world increasingly dominated by social media.

Saengchai Sunthornwat Award is considered to be Thailand’s most prestigious award for radio and television news professionals. It is named after a former director of the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand who was widely recognized for his contribution to promoting media professionalism.  He was killed in 1996 at the order of a businesswoman after he refused to bend to her pressure over a radio airtime deal.