Under former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, earlier this decade, many news outlets were intimidated and threatened into submission.
VOA: standard.2010.07.06
He was seen as backing a number of conservative candidates through his outlets in London, but then surprisingly cozying up to Prime Minister Blair there when that became expedient.
The "Climategate" scandal had been exposed in global media outlets just weeks before, and a December defeat of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's proposed cap-and-trade legislation as a job-killing bill didn't help to brighten attendee moods much either.