Thai entertainment tycoon Paiboon Damrongchaitham on Friday backed away from his hostile takeover bid for the independent Matichon newspaper, yielding to an intense public outcry over political inference in the media.

After growing calls for a boycott of CDs and videos produced by his music giant, GMM Grammy, Mr Paiboon, a close friend of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, agreed to sell some of Grammy’s newly acquired shares in Matichon to Kanchai Boonpan, the newspaper’s founding editor.