新興民主國家的大眾媒介與政治問責︰泰國媒介政治發展的個案研究
Mass media and political accountability in new democracies: The development of media politics in Thailand

葉長城
Yeh, Chang Cheng

本文主要是從大眾媒介（mass media）係為新興民主國家問責機制（accountability mechanism）之重要制度行動者的觀點出發，藉由媒介是否能夠相對排除國家力量干預之自主程度的變化，來觀察大眾媒介由威權時期的國家奴僕（servants），轉向民主體制下之問責者（accountability holders）的過程，並從該過程中所可能面臨的結構性障礙，說明新興民主國家之大眾媒介角色的轉化，未能臻於完善的根本原因，以作為日後媒介結構深化改革時的可能方向。藉由上述的分析方法，針對泰國過去媒介政治（media politics）的發展，進行個案研究後，本文發現︰當前泰國的報紙媒介，已能擺\脫過去國家奴僕的角色，開始朝向民主體制中之問責者角色的方向發展。不過這種角色的轉化程度，仍因為政治與財團媒介（corporate media）勢力的相互結合，取代過去的國家控制，與市場審查（market censorship）取代國家審查（state censorship），以及媒介發展在質與量上的失衡，這三項結構性障礙的存在，而未能臻於完善。至於在廣電媒介的發展方面，由於目前軍方與官僚等國家力量，仍舊能夠透過政治與經濟的手段，控制國內多數的廣電媒介資源，因此與報紙媒介相比，廣電媒介脫離過去國家奴僕角色的改革速度，顯然要比報紙媒介緩慢許\多。而
這也顯示出，1997 年泰國新憲法的通過，雖然已為未來大眾媒介轉化為一個更臻成熟的問責者，提供了許\多重要的制度性基礎，不過在軍方及官僚的舊政治勢力與新興政商控制結構的阻礙下，這條媒介角色轉化的改革道路，在短期之內仍然很難有機會，出現任何結構性的
改變。

This article is mainly based on the argument that the mass media is one of the key institutional actors in the accountability mechanism in new democracies. The transformation of the media ’s role, which is from the authoritarian state ’s servants to one of accountability holders in the democratic system, was scrutinized since the mass media relatively autonomous from the intervention of state ’s power. This article also explains why media ’s transformation was far from satisfactory because of structural barriers that it encountered during the transformation. The obstacles mentioned above are possible directions for the further deepening of the media ’s structural reform in the future. After doing this case study of the development of media politics in Thailand in line with the theoretical framework above, this article
argues that the Thai press moved away from the role of mere state servants toward positioning itself as an accountability holder in the newly democratic regime.
However, a complete transformation was not attained because of three major structural barriers, including the current domination of new political and corporate media forces replacing the state control of the past, market censorship instead of state censorship, and the incompatibility of the media ’s market development in terms of its quality and quantity. In the meantime, the transformation of the Thai broadcasting media was still relatively slow compared with the print media, because of the
monopoly on broadcasting resources in Thailand by the military and state bureaucrats politically and economically. It showed that for any structural reform of the Thai mass media beyond the control of the military, state bureaucrats, and the new political-business symbiont, the expected reform after the promulgation of the new constitution in 1997 could still barely be actualized within a short time, even though it did pave the way for the media to transform itself from the state ’s servants toward real
accountability holders in the future.

政治問責性，泰國，媒介政治，新興民主國家

political accountability, Thailand, media politics, new democracies

2004.06.25

已授權

2004S90.pdf