News stories by Lynette Lee Corporal* - Asia Media Forum/IPS

Elections are always a period of intense coverage by the Thai media. The sheer surfeit of stories on candidates of every political stripe and selected issues is guaranteed to raise media visibility a notch or two higher.

They were usually the first to arrive at work and the last to leave, and often took the blame for boo-boos in the following day's issue of the newspaper. Now the newsroom's unsung heroes, who engage in a daily deadline battle armed only with their sharp eye for detail and those squiggly proofreading marks, are facing a new kind of threat -- extinction.