CHIANG RAI: Construction of both a museum commemorating the rescue of the 12 Wild Boars and a statue of the ex-Navy Seal who lost his life during the mission has begun.
They are expected to be completed and ready for visitors within the next five months, or before the New Year's tourist season.
The design of the museum and the statue of Lt Cdr Saman Gunan is being overseen by national artist Chalermchai Kositpipat at a site near Tham Luang cave in Mae Sai district, where the 12 boys and their coach were trapped in the flooded cave from June 23 to July 10.
Local artists and senior officials from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and the Royal Forest Department gathered outside the cave in Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Nong Forest Park to launch the start of the project on Wednesday.
A religious ceremony was also conducted to honour certain deities and seek their blessing for the project.
- Breaking ground: First construction peg driven for museum
The centre will memorialise the epic rescue of the 12 young footballers.
Mr Chalermchai, who is funding the 10-million-baht complex, said he was pleased the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment supported breaking ground on the project early.
The gallery will house a 3-metre by 13 metre canvas painted by artists at the Art Bridge Chiang Rai centre as well as photographs of the rescue operation, he said.
Meanwhile, in Bangkok, some members of the media voiced support for anti-press steps taken by the government during the rescue operation.
Responsible news reporting sometimes has to be restrained above the importance of media freedom, said some participants at a seminar on "lessons learned" by the media from the rescue operation at the Tham Luang cave.
"More important than media freedom is the safety of humans," said Thapanee Ietsrichai, an assistant news editor with Channel 3 who has been covering various major disasters in Thailand and overseas over the past 18 years in her journalistic career.
Speakers atd the seminar at Thammasat University included some of the Thai journalists covering the incident.
Media freedom must be "balanced" with responsible reporting, especially when it came to a matter of life and death, she said, adding that every second in the operation counted as it could affect the lives of the children.
And there were more options to choose from in searching for news during the operation without affecting or disrupting such an important and difficult operation, she said.
She admitted to sneaking, in the beginning, into the rescue zone along with the rescuers and as well as asking some of them to carry her camera to film the operation for her.
But she later learned that that wouldn't do anyone any good and she should follow the rules and stick to the government-issued "information" about the operation provided by the official operation centre.
More than 1,400 members of the media from all over the world converged at the cave area to cover this operation around the clock, which in part helped broaden the local media's perspective on covering news in a crisis, she said.
"On the day those children were taken to a press conference for the first time, of course, everyone wanted to interview them all by his or herself. But we had to cooperate with the Department of Mental Health and abide by the child protection law," she said.
Benjapoj Thipkamosaeng, a crime reporter with Thai PBS, on the other hand viewed the sedating matter as something of a grey area, saying he thought it might be insensitive to reveal details about the need to sedate the boys to their concerned parents, through the media, even before the extraction operation began because that could unnecessarily add to their worries.
"The Tham Luang cave incident has pointed to the need for members of the media to change as the speed in breaking news isn't any longer most important," said Dumrongkiat Mala, a Bangkok Post reporter.
"Sensationalism by the media is being increasingly scrutinised by the audience."
