Thai reporter slapped by senior politician

Description

Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, a retired army general-turned-politician who formerly served as Deputy Prime Minister and is currently a Member of Parliament, lashed out at a reporter from the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (ThaiPBS) after she asked him whether he had been following the parliamentary vote for a new Prime Minister, which Prawit did not attend. He slapped her in the head twice and asked “What are you asking?”

The reporter was among a group of reporters who approached Prawit for an interview at the end of a reception at the office of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand for Thai athletes returning from the Paris Olympics. When other reporters asked the same question after Gen Prawit got in his car, he shouted at them “what the hell are you asking?”

Both ThaiPBS and the Thai Journalist Association subsequently issue statements condemning the assault and demanded that Gen. Prawit take responsibility for the assault.

Information
Number of attacked persons or entities related to media
1
Do they work as freelance or media?
Yes
Position in media
Status of journalists
Gender
Female
Age
Country
Bangkok
Full name or name of group
Identified
The name of perpetrator (individual/group)
Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan
Gender
Attack mention about gender background/sexual wording?
No
Date of incident
Type of incident
Physical assaults (include death, injury, abduction)