Prachatai (www.prachatai.com) is an independent, non-profit, daily web newspaper established in June 2004 to provide reliable and relevant news and information to the Thai public during an era of serious curbs on the freedom and independence of Thai news media.

Prachatai was established by a group of concerned Thais who included a senior member of the Press Council of Thailand, a well-known lecturer in Journalism, two members of the Thai Senate, a number of senior journalists, and a number of Thai NGO leaders.

Prachatai Objectives

1. To provide the Thai public with access to reliable news and information relevant to developing and strengthening the democratic functions of Thai civil society.
2. To focus news coverage on the problems, concerns, activities and accomplishments of local communities and civil society movements and organisations.
3. To strive for freedom and independence of Thai news media.
4. To promote active public participation in Thai news media.

Since January 2006 Prachatai has been registered as a Thai non-profit foundation, named The Foundation for Community educational Media(FCEM). FCEM has 6 board members to look after the projects under FCEM, including Prachatai.

Prachatai has a management team consisting of 4 senior staff, the management team is in charge for the operations of Prachatai.

On September 6th 2004, Prachatai began its daily publication on the web with a staff of one editor and five reporters. At present Prachathai has a staff of 15: a Director, Manager, Editor in Chief, News Editor, English Editor, 4 central office reporters, 3 regional reporters, a web administrator, a multi-media officer and a finance officer.

The first achievement of Prachatai was the investigative report on the Tak Bai massacre in October 2004. After that the readership gradually increased until the coup d’etat happened on September 19th 2006. After the Coup the readership Prachatai grew drastically readership but Prachatai was also faced with some levels of state interference and censorship. On 6th March 2009 the Prachatai office was raided by over 10 policemen and the Director of Prachatai got arrested with charges under the Articles 14 & 15 from the Computer Crime Act 2007 because of contents posted by users in the webboard (web-forum). On 24th September 2010 the Director of Prachatai got a second arrest at Bangkok Airport after returning from an international conference and was transported to Khon Kaen province where an arrest warrant was issued. She faced similar charges plus Article 112 (Lese Majesté) and Article 116 (Sedition) from the Penal Code.

Prachatai website was first officially blocked once the government declared the Emergency Decree on 7th April 2010, Prachatai also filed the lawsuit against the shutting down ordered. Although Prachatai lost in first stance it decided to appeal and now the case is under the Appeal Court.

Contact for Prachatai English:
E-mail: [email protected]
Mailing Address: 409 Ratchada Soi 14, Huaikwang, Bangkok, 10320 Thailand
Telephone: +66 2 690 2711 Facsimile: +66 2 690 2712

 

Funding Sources

The total operating costs of Prachatai for the current year (2011) roughly amounts to 8 million Thai baht. It is important to state here that none of our foreign donors has ever put up any demands connected to the funds they provided, nor did they ever interfere with our reporting.

1) Donors

Starting up June 2004:

• Thai Health Promotion Fund, 2,979,000 THB
• Community Organization Development Institute, 1,896,000 THB
• Rockefeller Foundation, 200,000 THB (specific for equipment)

Year 2, 2005-2006:

• Open Society Foundation, 50,000 USD
• Open Society Foundation, 46,800 USD (supplementary funds)

Year 3, 2006-2007

• Community Organization Development Institute, 736,750 THB
• Thai Health Promotion Fund, 1,841,000 THB
• Open Society Foundation, 52,000 USD

Year 4, 2007-2008:

• Community Organization Development Institute, 1,022,400 THB
• Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR), 10,000 USD
• Open Society Foundation, 60,000 USD

Year 5, 2008-2009:

• Thai Health Promotion Fund, 1,901,189 THB
• Community Organization Development Institute, 1,000,000 THB
• Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR), 10,000 USD

Year 6, 2009-2010:

• Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF), 60,000 USD
• Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR), 10,000 USD
• National Endowment for Democracy (NED), 50,000 USD

Year 7, 2010-2011:

• Fund for Global Human Rights (FGHR), 10,000 USD
• National Endowment for Democracy (NED), 50,000 USD
• Open Society Foundation (Media Program), 60,000 USD

Year 8, 2011-2012:

• National Endowment for Democracy (NED), 50,000 USD
• SAPAN Project, DAI(Support for empowering and capacity building), 2,019,556 THB

2) Projects/Services:

• Year 2007-2009 Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF) - Citizen Journalist, 599,200 THB
• Year 2009 People’s Empowerment Foundation - Create and support a website, 200,000 THB
• Year 2009-2010 Telecommunication Consumer Protection Institute (TCI) - Consumers Rights Protection Reporters, 2,000,000 THB
• Year 2010-2011 Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF) - Knowledge Development about New Media, 530,000 THB
• Year 2011-2012 Thai Center Investigative Journalist (TCIJ), 2,000,000 THB

3) Online Store:

• Year 2008, 360,110.50 THB
• Year 2009, 89,361.00 THB
• Year 2010, 37,620.21 THB
• Year 2011, 11,860.00 THB

4) Individual Donations:

• Year 2008, 588,447.14 THB
• Year 2009, 56,449.00 THB
• Year 2010, 585,119.81 THB
• Year 2011, 43,020.00 THB

5) Supporting membership:

• Year 2009, 188,019.74 THB
• Year 2010, 62,040.00 THB
• Year 2011, 4,000.00 THB

 

Update: August 10, 2011