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Seven months into his government and just weeks after his acquittal on corruption charges, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is in the hot seat again - this time due to accusations of media 'interference' and 'manipulation'.

Local newspapers have been carrying headlines such as 'Softly, softly, press freedom is being chopped away'. Commentaries and news reports have been discussing a string of incidents in recent months, which journalists say show the Thaksin government's attempts to control media in subtle ways - and its discomfort with criticism.

The Thaksin government, according to local scribes, has been attempting to step on the media in subtler ways - through economic pressure and backroom business deals. These, they say, are in marked contrast to the more brazen forms of censorship the media faced in the past, which included attacks on newspaper offices.

''What we are witnessing is more sinister than what the media went through under Chuan (Leekpai),'' said rights activist Somchai Homlaor, referring to Thaksin's predecessor as premier. ''There were complaints during the Chuan government about tactics to win good coverage, but not to censor as is apparent now.''

''With the skillful application of money and personnel, his (Thaksin's) government is effectively influencing, coercing and undermining the Thai media as never before,'' Kavi Chongkittavorn of the English-language daily The Nation , wrote last week. It is the ''slick work of spinmeisters and businessmen,'' he added.

Police warnings

But in a Saturday radio broadcast, Thaksin said he ''did not think'' the government has meddled with media. ''I have told my ministers all the time not to interfere with the media," Thaksin said.

At a seminar by the Thai Journalists' Association (TJA) and other media the same day, a spokesman for Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party, Suranan Vejjajiva, assured that Thaksin never gave any order for censorship or interference. He said that while interference exists, ''I can't say if it has anything to do with (the Thai Rak Thai party). The word 'government' is a big word.''

''The government is composed of politicians as well as bureaucrats . . . government owns much of the media, so they use it. Some (meddling) has occurred without authorisation. It's the bureaucrats who do it and follow the system,'' he added.

Critics say the government's modus operandi has ranged from the removal or reshuffle of radio presenters to the suspension of television or radio programmes 'unfriendly' to the government of Thaksin, whose party's win in the January elections gave it one of the biggest popular mandates ever for a Thai government.

Earlier this month, the Royal Thai Police gave warnings to two newspapers for publishing reports by foreign news agencies on the wealth concealment case of Thaksin, of which he was acquitted on Aug 3, local media says.

Radio and television reporters and 70 senators also signed a document calling on Thaksin to respect media freedom and stay away from meddling in news presentation - especially that of state-owned media whose professionalism and independence is enshrined in the new, democratic 1997 Constitution.

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Print and broadcast groups, as well as some academics, say there have been 14 cases of state interference in the mass media since Thaksin - a telecommunications tycoon before he entered politics - came to power.

Local newspapers also point to efforts to silence the media by restricting advertisements from state bodies and enterprises. ''Instead of giving advertisements through normal channels, all advertisements - from the prime minister's or a minister's companies or affiliates as well as from government and state enterprises - will be centralised through a single unit of control,'' the Nation newspaper reported.

The determinant of where the advertisements will be placed will be based on media coverage of the government, it added. ''The aim is to cripple hostile media, particularly the independent and outspoken press, and force publishers and journalists into submission and self-censorship,'' the paper argued.

''We need to be more vigilant and monitor these subtle moves by the government to undermine press freedom here,'' Chavarong Limpattananee, TJA secretary-general, said in an interview.

''Economic pressure from the government, like holding back advertisements for critical newspapers, is already having an effect. Some newspapers are not as critical of the government as before,'' he added.

National resources

For Somchai, who heads the Asia Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia), a Bangkok-based regional rights watchdog, the charges against the Thaksin government go against the grain of Thailand's Constitution. ''The Constitution is clear on press freedom issues,'' he remarked, in reference to Article 14 of the four-year-old document.

This article states: ''Officials or employees in a private sector undertaking, newspaper or radio or television broadcasting business shall enjoy their liberties to present news and express their opinion within constitutional limits without being under the jurisdiction of any government agency, state agency, state enterprise or the owner of such business, provided that it is not contrary to their professional ethics.''

Much of Thailand's media - radio and television stations - belong to the state, so its staff are public employees, Kamol Hengkietisak wrote in the Bangkok Post on Sunday. While the tendency by governments to expect state media to lean toward its views is not new, Kamol said, ''the new constitution came along with two provisions about media and press freedom''.

Sections 40 and 41 state that television and radio frequencies are national resources for the public's benefit and that all media employees, whether in private firms or government organisations, have freedom of news presentation and expression, he adds.

Thus, journalists say, the Thaksin government has to learn to accept criticism and the check-and-balances that come with a democratic system even as he says he wants the people's support to be able to solve Thailand's problems.

''The prime minister and his party must get used to being criticised and checked by journalists, particularly in the print media,'' says Chavarong. "It is a Thai reality they must respect.''

Only institution

Actually, Kavi of The Nation says, the plan to ''manipulate'' the media can be traced back to before Thaksin's party won this year's poll.

''Long before he got elected, Thaksin and Co had deployed an effective game plan to win the January election, built up his power base and business networks and subsequently coopted the media,'' Kavi stated. ''It began with the majority-share purchase last September of iTV, Thailand's only independent television station.''

Among the first to feel the heat at the television station after that purchase were 23 reporters and staff members, who had formed a labour union and had been complaining that the station was tilting campaign coverage towards Thaksin's party, he said. They were ''fired shortly after the arrival of the new owner, Shin Corp, an affiliate of Thaksin's media empire,'' added Kavi.

Somchai says the outrage against media manipulation is inevitable given the media's added importance since Thaksin's party won: it is the only independent democratic institution with enough clout to act as a check against the government, since Thai Rak Thai's overwhelming majority in parliament has eroded the opposition.

The above article was first written for the Inter-Press Service (IPS).