Pheu Thai list-MP and United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) core member Weng Tojirakarn has asked AsiaUpdate, the satellite TV station for the red shirts, why it has removed shows hosted by four leading red-shirt figures from its schedule.
The four are Sombat Boonngamanong, leader of the Red Sunday Group, Tida Thawornseth, the UDD chairwoman, Jatuporn Prompan, a UDD core member, and Deputy Commerce Minister Nattawut Saikuar, also a UDD core member. They all have voiced opposition to the amnesty bill as revised by the House scrutiny committee.
The bill now offers a blanket amnesty, which they said would allow those who ordered the crackdowns on red-shirt protesters in 2010, resulting in 92 deaths and hundreds of injuries, to go unpunished.
Mr Weng yesterday said he did not understand why the executives of the satellite TV station axed the hosts.
This showed they did not support democracy, which in principle does not obstruct but is open to the expression of different opinions.
He said he personally opposed the blanket amnesty, which if allowed to go into effect would stop attempts to establish the truth surrounding the deaths and injuries inflicted on the red shirts.
The executives of AsiaUpdate should reconsider their decision concerning the shows hosted by the red-shirt leaders, Mr Weng said.
He said red shirts have found themselves friends with a common enemy _ the Democrat Party, which, since its inception, had supported military coups, but which also opposes the bill.
Mr Sombat, a core leader of the Red Sunday Group, a UDD coalition group, said the removal stemmed from conflicts about the bill between some moderators at the channel and the hosts. He insisted he would not come back to the red-shirt satellite channel again.
Pheu Thai list-MP and UDD co-leader Korkaew Pikulthong, who supported the bill in the House, denied speculation the red shirts are split, saying their views may differ but they are still united. "Some red shirts criticising each other are just expressing their feelings," he said.