In the course of uncovering news, reporters find themselves in all sorts of unexpected scenarios.
I'm not talking about war reporters in hotspots. Reporters covering the more mundane aspects of modern life can find themselves in peril as well.
I was once threatened with death from a grieving father whose son had driven an army tank down the main street of a Queensland town before turning a gun on himself.
My editor sent me off to do what we called a "death knock", which was to knock on the door of the family of somebody who'd died spectacularly and ask them: "How do you feel?" The grieving father didn't feel anything, other than wanting to shoot my head off.
Another time a nightclub bouncer promised to murder me, and then after that he promised to murder my mother and my father. I would have thought murdering my parents before murdering me would cause me more anguish, but hey, he was outside a nightclub, not a Mensa meeting.
I thought I'd heard everything until this week, when a Khon Kaen reporter was stripped semi-naked by an enraged local mayor who then told the reporter "not to tell anybody about this, OK?" Anybody who says that to a reporter can only be enraged, or as far away from Mensa as that bouncer was.
Late last week pictures started circulating of this mayor, Dr Premsak Phiayura, sitting in what clearly resembled a Thai wedding or engagement ceremony.
He wore a nice pink Thai silk shirt as a phuyai tied traditional strings around his wrists. In front of him was 400,000 baht and a Buddha statue along with keys to a car. These are normal things a groom must hand over to a bride's parents for the privilege of marrying their daughter. Yes, I know, that's really unfair, but get over it. Let's move on.
Such pictures would be considered harmless if it weren't for the revelation the alleged bride is a Year 11 high school student, the proud groom is 51 years old -- and he's already been married for a number of years. Weddings may be celebrated, marriages may be endured, but bigamy is definitely newsworthy, especially when your spouse is young enough to be your granddaughter.
Dr Premsak has been a Khon Kaen politician for more than 20 years. He was briefly on the national political scene but these days he is the mayor of Ban Phai, a nondescript rural district of Khon Kaen province with a population of 100,000. He lives there with his wife of many years, Dr Orathai, a lecturer at Khon Kaen University.
When the pics first leaked about 10 days ago, the good doctor did a runner, which is exactly what I would have done too, though certainly not running anywhere near home. It came to a head Tuesday morning when five reporters camped outside his office at Ban Phai.
The good doctor arrived at work, invited the reporters in, locked the office doors behind them and confiscated their cameras and notepads. The rant then officially began:
To hell with an interview with you guys. I'm not giving you any facts. Why didn't you call me? I've always had a good relationship with the media! Why are you infringing on my personal life? I've been crying myself to sleep for a week!
The good doctor claimed the pics were not of his wedding or engagement ceremony. The pretty high school girl demurely seated beside him was the daughter of an impoverished family. He was merely helping the family out, and he did it out of the goodness of his heart.
Dr Premsak then turned his attention to Korsith Kongchom, the Daily News reporter, one of the five reporters trapped inside the office. Your newspaper's been the most relentless, he shouted, infringing on my personal life for no public benefit. How would you like it if I infringed on your personal life? And just to show him what he meant, he ordered his four of his six henchmen -- I beg your pardon, his staff -- who were in the room, to strip the Daily News reporter of his clothes, leaving him standing in his underwear.
Another staff member took pictures of the naked man -- for what purpose? One hopes not for Dr Premsak's personal titillation; the poor reporter was 64 years old, not to mention the good doctor is a married man.
Two hours later the reporters emerged, with the threat not to tell anybody about what went on inside.
What a scenario. The Thai Journalists Association came out against the doctor. The good doctor himself pre-empted any retaliation by rushing to file charges with the Ban Phai cops against the five reporters the very next day. He claimed they had obstructed his ability to carry out his work by coming to visit him at his office. How five captured reporters in a locked office can actually impinge on your ability to work, when you are the one holding the door key, will make an amusing page-one court story in future times.
Poor Korsith, though. Imagine making it to 64 years of age only to have a manic mayor demand you strip down to your undies and be photographed to boot.
We journalists are not the most popular of people. Surveys of preferred professions always put us down the bottom along with used-car salesmen and sewer inspectors. Despite this, we have an extremely important role to play in society, and if you don't believe that, just watch over the next 10 days during the lead up to, and aftermath of, next Sunday's referendum.
The public wants to know lots of things, and it is the responsibility of Korsith and his counterparts to seek out that information. Local politicians like Dr Premsak rely on the likes of Korsith when he needs publicity about opening new bathrooms or roadways leading to the big cities. The relationship is reciprocal. Dr Premsak has chosen to be a public figure, and for that he is open to public scrutiny and not just when it suits him. The media will always be there to watch over the behaviour of public figures, whether it be bathroom openings or spousal collection.
But what if the good doctor was speaking the truth? The jury is still out on that … but what if?
Has this all been a terrible misunderstanding? Was he indeed just being a benevolent mayor, donating 400,000 baht to a local family fallen upon hard times who, by coincidence, happened to have a very attractive school-aged daughter?
If so, then the good doctor's anger would certainly be justifiable, and those stains on his pillow after a week of tears would be understandable. Dr Premsak's name has been besmirched, not to mention his wife's, causing the entire country to perceive him badly. For that he should receive sympathy.
Oh but wait.
The answer to that question -- if the good doctor was speaking the truth -- may lie in a very small detail that got adjusted on his Wikipedia page the day after the reporter's trousers hit the fan.
Early Wednesday morning, upon doing some background research, I found his Thai Wikipedia page, which I print for you here as a screen shot. Even if you can't read Thai, you can see one entry for his age (51), then his political party (Phumjai Thai), then his spouse (Associate Professor Dr Orathai) and finally his religion (Buddhist).
That was 8am Wednesday morning. By 4pm the very same day, I returned to that Wikipedia entry. The entry about his spouse has vanished. Perhaps the jury is not out after all … at least not at home.
