Tomchan Boonsai showing his bruises to Thammasala police: Photo: @Nakhon224
A channel 7 reporter filed a police complaint yesterday against a group of red-shirt taxi drivers for assaulting him in front of a police station.
Reporter Tomchan Boonsai told the police the taxi drivers previously called Channel 7 to complain that they had not received payment from a broker who promised to pay them for joining the red-shirt protest site.
The taxi drivers requested the news agency report their story, and Tomchan was assigned to meet the taxi drivers in front of Thammasala Police Station in Bangkok’s Taweewattana district on Wednesday morning.
Arriving at the meeting point at 2:45am, Tomchan started filming the taxi drivers. Suddenly, the group attacked him and forced him to delete the footage. Tomchan did what he was told, but the taxi drivers said he was too slow and took the tape from his camera by force and continued to beat him.
Later a woman shouted, “Don’t hurt the press.” The taxi drivers then stopped assaulting the reporter and the kind lady gave Tomchan his tape back.
Tomchan says he wants the protesters to stop attacking the press, especially the ones who work on the ground among the protesters.
The authorities will track down the attackers from the CCTV footage and arrest them, Kapook reported.
