Voice TV will appeal against the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication (NBTC)’s order to take its programs off the Video To Home 9 TV (V2H9TV) channel, one of its directors told Thai Enquirer on Thursday.
“We will ask the Parliament’s Committee on Political Development, Mass Communications and Public Participation to investigate whether the NBTC’s order is fair to all sides or not,” said Rittikorn Mahakhachabhorn, the Deputy General Director of Voice TV.
The news that Voice TV’s programs could be taken off the air from V2H9TV, channel 75 on satellite, was first reported by Sirote Klampaiboon, one of its hosts, on Tuesday.
There are three live programs from Voice TV on the channel at the moment.
“The NBTC said the channel went against regulations when it aired our programs on April 27 which covered the protests Standing Still to Stop Incarceration (ยืนหยุดขัง), the White Ribbons (ผูกโบว์ขาว) and the Let Our Friends Go (ปล่อยเพื่อนเรา),” he said on a social media post.
All three protests were related to the student-led pro-democracy movement which began last year.
The Standing Still to Stop Incarceration and the Let Our Friends Go campaigns were against Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha administration’s use of vague and outdated laws to imprison dissidents.
The White Ribbons campaign was started by high school students to address inequality and abuses in schools.
Sirote later wrote that the Song Sue (ส่องสื่อ) website has revealed more details of the NBTC’s meeting which found the “VOICE GO” programs that were aired via V2H9TV on April 27 was “inappropriate” because it was about these protests.
The NBTC also found that V2H9TV had aired more than six minutes of advertisement during two of the one-hour programs which is against the regulation.
“This means that the TV channel would stay blank during our time slots and this will in turn affect our revenue,” Rittikorn said.
“Nevertheless, our online content will not be affected.”
Rittikorn said its programs were still on air V2H9TV channel on Wednesday and it is still unclear when the programs will be taken off the air as it is up to NBTC.
He also said the appeal against the NBTC’s decision will be made “soon” as they are still gathering information for the case.