The hours-long standoff was also broadcast live by many television channels.

Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd quoted the premier as urging police to be well-prepared and have a crisis management plan in place to reduce loss of life in such cases such as bringing a psychologist to the negotiations or having in place a back-up plan if the talks did not work.

“All sides unanimously agreed that the media’s news coverage [in Wanchai case] should be a case study for better adjustment and improvement towards balance and appropriateness between doing their journalistic job and presenting violent content that affected the public’s morale. Moreover, it must be considered carefully if such an action [of close and constant coverage] could put pressure on those at the scene and whether it provided enough respect to their human dignity,” he said quoting Prayut.

Sansern said Prayut suggested this should be an opportunity for agencies supervising the media and professional organisations to review and formulate a better system that could monitor inappropriate behaviour inching towards violation of law.

He said the premier also advised families and educational institutes to step in and provide information so as to create proper understanding among children who were watching the news on mainstream media or other online [social media] channels so they know such violent actions were harmful and must not be copied.

“All Thais should be mindful of their own actions. Those in positions of power should be kind, sympathetic and respectful to others. Those at the receiving end should be mindful and know how to handle emotions like anger in a constructive way |so as to not harm themselves,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry’s Mental Health Department yesterday offered guidelines for media’s news coverage, particularly violent content and images that would affect public morale and mental state such as Thursday’s standoff between Wanchai and police. It said the media could help prevent suicides by following guidelines:

1 Avoid presenting images of people in despair or giving details of a suicide, and avoid presenting such news with excitement and dramatic tones that can have mental impacts or overdramatise sufferings or tragedies.

2 Be careful in presenting news that would adversely affect the relatives and close persons or violate individual rights.

3 Aim to provide knowledge, awareness and accurate understanding as well as moral support to those who are feeling discouraged and disheartened.

4 Presentation of a self-inflicted image in movies or dramas should be advised by an expert and a notification on where persons inclined to suicide could seek help should be run along with the scene

5 Reporters themselves should watch out for the mental impacts such as stress and grief from such news coverage and talk with co-workers, friends or family or those providing mental health aids

In its open letter, the department also praised and showed support to the Thai Journalists Association, which issued a warning to television channels and online media to exercise caution in reporting the standoff, especially those broadcasting it via smartphones’ Facebook Live.

It also said that live broadcast of such violent images, especially suicides, through media and online outlets was inappropriate as it could result in the images being played over and over again, resulting in copycat behaviour. The department said live broadcast also put pressure on police and also on the suspect.