A Thai legislative committee confirmed on Tuesday that it had asked a local TV station to remove an interview with Taiwan’s foreign minister from its YouTube channel.
The interview with Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) first aired on the Thai public television station TPBS on November 3 and was later posted online. The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok on November 11 issued a statement on social media criticizing the interview, saying that Thai media had provided a platform for Taiwan independence separatists, which harms China’s interests and hurts the feelings of the Chinese people.
In response, Foreign Minister Wu on November 12 posted on X that the Chinese statement was “Too funny to be true!” Soon after, Wu’s interview was removed from the TPBS YouTube page without explanation.
On Tuesday, a public statement from the Thai Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee confirmed that the interview had been taken down, according to Voice of America (VOA). The committee also said it asked TPBS to use caution in publishing similar programs in the future and called on all parties to adhere to Thailand’s “One China” policy.
Speaking to VOA, associate professor and China specialist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University Wasana Wongsurawat said the removal was not surprising. She says that because TPBS is funded through government tax revenue, it is under more pressure from the government than other Thai media.
Editor-in-chief at the free expression group Index on Censorship Jemimah Steinfeld also told VOA that the removal of Wu’s interview was damaging to Thailand’s press freedoms.