“We are the worst, even when compared to Laos or Vietnam,” said Kulachada Chaipipat, campaign manager at the Southeast Asia Press Alliance (Seapa). “Those two countries have seen stagnant, bad situations, but Thailand is going down.”

There are not many shades of democracy in Southeast Asia, Kulachada admitted, and media in the region are still struggling hard, citing the examples of conservative issues in Indonesia and death threats to media workers in the Philippines.

“But they still have made some improvements in some aspects,” she said. “They are better compared [with] Thailand, where the government is using non-legal tactics against media.”

She was also concerned that vulnerable press-freedom groups in the Kingdom were contributing to the current weakening of freedom.

Kulachada was speaking at a panel discussion on “How Free Is Thailand’s Media?” hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday.

Her concerns were reiterated by Anuthee Dejthevaporn, Voice TV’s political field reporter, who said the Thai Journalists Association (TJA), one of Thailand’s prominent media organisations, had done little for minor media like his.

“The TJA does not recognise us at all,” Anuthee said. “It’s true that they issued statements on Tuesday to show concerns about media freedom. But they didn’t budge a bit when Voice TV was summoned more than 10 times.”

Voice TV has been called in by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), which Anuthee found ironic since the NBTC was supposed to protect the media’s interests.

“But the NCPO has used it as their tool. When they dislike our content, they submit a complaint to the NBTC, which then launches an inquisition,” he said. “If the inquisition results in punishment, we could be permanently shut down without compensation.”

Once forced to shut down temporarily shortly after the coup in 2014, Voice TV is now censoring itself to avoid repeating history, he said. The tactics range from name changes of popular TV programmes to temporarily taking off some famous reporters “to avoid the spotlight of the authorities”, he said.

Anuthee said his office was often branded as a red-shirt medium and consequently not treated like a news outlet at all. “We work professionally,” he insisted.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of online news outlet Prachatai, said media freedom and responsibility were both crucial but the two should be discussed separately.

“If the two things go together, people may think that if there is interference in the media, it means that they are irresponsible. That’s just not true at all.”

She said the media today could probably feel free “if they agree to work in a certain scope and self-censorship”.

Like Anuthee, Chiranuch viewed the NBTC as the government’s tool over broadcasting media. Print and online media have been watched by the National Council for Peace and Order also, she said.

Nopporn Wong-Anan, deputy editor of the Bangkok Post, said the junta should allow more open discussion if it wants to realise its reform attempts. Nopporn recalled that his office had been called from time to time and told to stay on designated paths.

“They told us not to try to urge people to oppose or overthrow them. They also told us not to worsen the political divide,” he said, adding that the junta also made calls to inform the outlet of what should be reported.

He said the Bangkok Post was lucky to have not seen greater interference from the junta so far.

The FCCT event was also attended by US Ambassador to Thailand Glyn Davies and representatives from the Swedish Embassy, as well as a number of military officers.