[2][3] From 1996 to 2000, Thepchai Yong served as news director of iTV, the nation's first independent television network.
[1] Following election of Thaksin Shinawatra, however, he found himself sacked for his unflattering coverage of the prime minister's telecommunications conglomerate, the Shin Corporation.
[4] After leaving iTV, Thepchai Yong helped found the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association in 2001, serving as its president from 2002-2004.
[1] During this time, The Nation, with which Thepchai Yong was still active, reportedly found itself under increasing pressure from the government of Thaksin Shinawatra.
[5] In 2003, the group's Thai-language paper Kom Chad Luek came under pressure not to run a story that Panthongtae Shinawatra, the prime minister's son, had been caught cheating on a college exam; Thepchai Yong ran the story on the paper's front page, and was subsequently forced to resign from the Nation Multimedia Group.