Sorrayuth verdict stirs widespread debate, comment

The post received over 75,000 ‘Likes’ and almost 20,000 comments within 15 hours. Most of them gave him moral support while others said he should serve the penalty for the wrong he had done.

The Criminal Court ruling on Monday that Sorrayuth must serve a jail term of 13 years and four months for bribery and malfeasance stirred up debates in social media that covered many related aspects: corruption, politics and media ethics. 

In this case, Sorrayuth’s company failed to give shares of commercial fees, that caused losses of Bt138 million to state-owned Mass Communications Organisation of Thailand (MCOT)’s TV Channel 9 where he worked over a decade ago. A lot of people threw their support behind an anti-corruption campaign linked to this matter. 

After Channel 3 management said that it would continue to support Sorrayuth and allow him to still be in news shows, many people changed their profile picture to a ‘No Channel 3’ logo. The Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand and the Watchdog Operation ran a campaign calling on Thais to not watch or listen to Channel 3 and to not buy products advertised on his shows. 

Many companies then announced they would withdraw or not buy advertisements during his programmes. 

A campaign at change.org also called on Sorrayuth to suspend his role as a presenter. It received over 2,300 signatures in two days.

@minbanyen posted a picture of consumer product giant Sahapat Group’s executive, who vowed not to support Sorrayuth’s shows, and wrote: “We will always use your products. Thanks for setting a good standard to society.”

President of National Press Council of Thailand Chavarong Limpattamapanee wrote on Facebook and Twitter: “I admire Sorrayuth’s decision to suspend his role, no matter what reasons or influences it came from. He has help set a new morality standard for society.”

Sorrayuth’s decision to stop appearing on TV while appealing the bribery case also came hot on the heels of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's call for senior government officials to exercise their judgement on whether to appear on the convicted host’s programmes. 

Some said the attacks against Sorrayuth were political or caused by jealousy. They shared an article from Matichon newspaper, which said Sorrayuth was the victim of a jealous middle-class – who supported the ousting of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and the Pheu Thai government. The article drew a massive reaction, also.

@pannikawanich wrote on Twitter: “Sorrayuth giving in to witch-hunting like this is another prove that, in Thailand, Kangaroo Courts are more powerful than the laws.”

@LastIFound replied: “What is a Kangaroo Court? The [real] court already gave a verdict. And I saw no one  intimidating or using force with Sorrayuth.” 

In this case, Sorrayuth’s company failed to give shares of commercial fees, that caused losses of Bt138 million to state-owned Mass Communications Organisation of Thailand (MCOT)’s TV Channel 9 where he worked with over a decade ago. A lot of people threw their support behind an anti-corruption campaign linked to this matter.

AFTER THREE days of mass media and civil society calling on him to step down from hosting TV news programmes, Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda chose to announce on Thursday afternoon, through Instagram, that he would suspend his role. “Till we meet again,” he ended the post.

Sompop Lee, a veteran of TV news programmes, posted on Facebook: “Nobody in news society loves Sorrayuth (except the audience)”. He wrote about Sorrayuth’s unique talent as a presenter, marketer and social worker, transforming Thai news shows to appeal to people from all walks of life and attract lots of advertising charged at high rates. 

“Flooding, fire, war, conflicts, people fighting, pets fighting, every issue must reach Sorrayuth,” he wrote referring to the impact of Sorrayuth’s show, which often led to state agencies fixing problems quickly.

Jai Ngai Jung wrote on pantip.com, “There will be no more hashtag #shareuntilitreachesSorrayuth. To whom should we share to from now on?” 

Kanokphan Eh Khamasundara wrote on Facebook: “Many wrote that ‘It’s normal to make mistakes, who never cheated?’ ‘Everybody would cheat if they could’, ‘[Sorrayuth] has done a lot of good things and people should instead look at that’, ‘The case is not final yet, it doesn’t mean he was guilty.’ and ‘People envy him so they maliciously damage him. I feel sick about people’s logic nowadays… Good contribution in the past doesn’t mean you don’t have to serve the penalty when you did wrong.” 

Meanwhile, anti-military government StopFakeThailand Facebook page wrote that when people saw Sorrayuth’s return of the money to Channel 9 as a reason to forgive him, they should also push further on the Rajabhakti Park scandal.