Three journalists shot in Bangkok clashes

Reporters Without Borders has called on the Thai Army and the Red Shirts to guarantee the safety of journalists covering clashes in Bangkok after three were injured: a cameraman for France 24, a photographer for Thai newspaper Matichon, and a photographer for the Thai daily The Nation.
RWB said. “Both camps must comply fully with the requirements of international law, according to which journalists cannot be military targets. Nelson Rand, a Canadian reporter employed by the French TV news station France 24, was badly injured by automatic gunfire near the Suan Lum night bazaar. A photographer with the Thai newspaper Matichon also sustained a gunshot injury. A third journalist, working for The Nation, Chaiwat Pumpuang, was shot in the right leg as the army tried to disperse Red Shirts
Hiroyuki Muramoto, a Japanese cameraman working for the Reuters news agency, was fatally shot and a France 24 cameraman was injured in clashes in Bangkok on 10 April.
RWB said it is also shocked by the methods used by the army to eliminate the pro-Red Shirt general Khattiya Sawasdipol, who was shot in the head while being interviewed by International Herald Tribune reporter Thomas Fuller.
Fuller told CNN: “I was facing him, he was answering my questions, looking at me and the bullet hit him in the forehead, from what I could tell. It looks like the bullet came over my head and struck him.”

• “Shootings underline the dangers for journalists covering this unfolding story in Bangkok,” said Bob Dietz, the Committe to Protect Journalists’ Asia program coordinator. “CPJ calls on both sides of the conflict to take measures to protect journalists and refrain from armed exchanges where reporters could be caught in the crossfire.”
• Picture: AP