Thai police investigating CNN crew's coverage of attack
People gather for a Buddhist ceremony in front of the Young Children's Development Center in the rural town of Uthai Sawan, north eastern Thailand on Oct 9, 2022. (Photo: AP/Sakchai Lalit)
UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand: Thai police are investigating a report that a CNN crew inappropriately entered the daycare centre where more than 20 pre-schoolers were slain as they were reporting on the attack, authorities said Sunday (Oct 9).
Danaichok Boonsom, head of the local township administration, told reporters as he left the Na Klang district police station that he had submitted his report on the incident alleging unauthorised entry onto the government property, and that police were investigating.
“Let the legal process run its course, I don't want to disclose all the details,” he said. “Let the police do their work investigating.”
Authorities began looking into the incident after a Thai reporter posted an image on social media of two members of the crew leaving the scene, with one climbing over the low wall and fence around the compound, over police tape, and the other already outside.
CNN tweeted that the crew had entered the premises when the police cordon had been removed from the centre, and were told by three public health officials exiting the building that they could film inside.
“The team gathered footage inside the centre for around 15 minutes, then left,” CNN said in its tweet. “During this time, the cordon had been set back in place, so the team needed to climb over the fence at the centre to leave.”
The tweet came in response to criticism from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, which said it was “dismayed” by CNN's coverage and the decision to film the crime scene inside.
“This was unprofessional and a serious breach of journalistic ethics in crime reporting,” the FCCT said.
In the attack Thursday, police said 36 people, 24 of them children, in total were killed by a former police officer who was fired earlier this year on drug charges and had been due in court on Friday.
As Thailand's worst such massacre ever, the attack drew widespread international media attention to the small town of Uthai Sawan in the country's rural northeast.
By Sunday few remained, but large numbers of Thai media continued to report from the scene.
