MP's bizarre excuse for looking at porn in parliament
A Thai MP was left red-faced after being caught in parliament looking at porn on his phone.
Ronnathep Anuwat was supposed to be paying attention to a budget reading in Bangkok, Thailand, on September 17.
However, the politician opened a series of explicit images on his smartphone – viewing them for more than ten minutes.
Shocked reporters in the press gallery snapped pictures of the politician – who had even removed his face mask to look closely at the images.
One showed a young woman with her top off, another was lying naked on a bed and a third showed another pornographic image.
The embarrassed MP, who represents Chonburi province for ruling military Palang Pracharath Party, was confronted over the images and admitted looking at them.
However, he made a bizarre excuse claiming to have received the unsolicited messages on the app Line from a girl who was “asking for help”.
Ronnathep told local media that he viewed the images in detail as he was checking the background to decide if the girl was in danger.
He said he wanted to “observe the environment surrounding the girl in the picture” as he feared she was “being harassed by gangsters who had forced her to take the pictures”.
Ronnathep said he eventually realised the girl was “asking for money” so he deleted all of the content.
Government officials summoned Ronnathep for an explanation but they ruled that no further action would be taken against him.
House speaker Chuan Leekpai said the images were a “personal matter” and said there were currently no rules about what MPs could look at on their phones in the meeting room. He said no MPs had complained about the matter so no action would be taken.
Chuan warned the public to separate personal matters from MPs’ duties.
In June 2012, Bangkok MP Nat Bantadtan was also caught flicking through porn on his phone during a constitutional amendment.
Australscope
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