“Protest” is not only a documentation of the “under-documented”, but also a protest against the discreditation of protesters and their matters of concern. “Protest” is a contribution to counterbalance and protest the weakened press freedom in Thailand.

Following 1973, Thailand has in just two decades undertaken impressive democratic reforms and institutionalised civil rights. Thai tradition to petition and protest is nevertheless much older then this, going back to the reign of King Ramkamhaeng. Over the past decade every government nevertheless discredit-ed protesters in a range of different ways: “These are not legitimate people…They are paid activists working for vested interests…

They obstruct progress…They are paid by foreigners and just out on the street to secure their next cheque… They do not love our nation…etc.” Unfortunately, the majority of the Thai population now believe in this kind of discrediting comments.

The experience of photographing and interviewing all kind of protesters in front of Government House every Tuesday (when the weekly cabinet

meetings take place) between
April 2002 - April 2003, proved these discrediting comments to be an illegitimate representation. Manit’s photographs provide evidence of the variety of concerns brought forward and the plight of the pro-testers as real, with many being direct victims of ill-fated national development policies, corruption or abuse of power. Many of these protesters did not make “the news”. Of those who did, many had been

forced to resort to outlandish attention-grabbing stunts, covering them-selves with pig or human excrement, or threatening to set themselves on fire. But for their pains, all they managed to achieve in the end was to become a laugh for the journalists, a joke to enliven the day’s news. Meanwhile, their complaints and the underlying causes remain under-exposed and explanations from authorities rare.
Thailand enjoys a high reputation for its press freedom in the region and the world. In its 2003 report on the Thai mass media, the Thai Journalists Association complains nevertheless about “indirect government interference in the printed press leading to self-censorship. Furthermore all radio and television channels re-main under state control and a privately-owned TV-channel had already fallen into the hands of a company owned by a powerful figure in the government” (BKK Post, 29-12-03). The print space for the problems of the “commoner” continues to shrink. If peaceful protest has become an ineffective means for getting media attention for one’s plight, where does that lead us?

With his photo exhibition “Protest”, Manit is not only documenting the “under-documented”, but he is also protesting the discreditation of the protesters and their matters of concern. His photo series “Protest” is a contribution to counterbalance and protest the weakened press freedom in Thailand.