TeakDoor.com - The Thailand Forum - View Single Post - Democracy Abhisit Vejjajiva style: Eliminate freedom of speech

gjbkk · 19-04-2009, 10:43 AM

Bangkok Pundit has covered this and I like and agree with his comments here.

http://bangkokpundit.blogspot.com/2009/04/first-casualty-of-war.html

Quote:

BP: Were these websites telling people to attack soldiers/Abhisit or telling people to take to the streets? There is a difference. They are also the same sites which have been providing video and pictures alleging government wrongdoing. Prachatai has a list of most of the blocked siteshere.

Matichon reportson a search warrant issue in relation to a community radio station in Lampang which notes that that the radio station incited the red shirts to oppose the government and attack the bureaucratic polity, supports TRT and then Puea Thai.

At Prachatai, Jom points out that, as per normal, it was only Channel 11 and TV Thai (formerly ThaiPBS) closely followed the situation throughout the day. You don't need to be surprised as Channel 11 reported all information as it was created for the government. Hopes rested with TV Thai which was specifically created for the public benefit, but there was disappointment. He says it was not that different from Channel 11 as acting as the voice of the government. I closely followed the situation from April 13 and commentary from the TV channels was not that different. I was surprised that there were no live reports from the site - there was only BBC and CNN. The TV programs were showing damage caused by the red shirts, but no explanation from the red shirts at all

[BP: Cant any find the article with one of the red shirt leaders, Nattawut, complaining that Thai TV wouldn't talk to him].

It should be noted though that an analyst from Media Monitor has an article in Matichon stating that coverage by free TV was fair. He states that they initially favoured the red shirts in Pattaya in terms of coverage, but this shifted to the government afterwards.

BP: Jom is consideredby the PAD crowd for in December 2007 daring to interview Thaksin for TITV (now Channel 11) in 2007. To be honest, BP does not think that highly of Media Monitor - for example, they viewed TITV's news coverage under the junta as being too slanted towards PPP and critical of the Democrats in November 2007.

On TV Thai's coverage, well it is difficult for BP to comment as was on holiday over the period and didn't watch as much TV coverage as normally do. Normally, they are reasonably fair in their coverage although didn't detect much investigation into the military or any questioning of the military. They just repeat statements from whoever makes them. It certainly may be the case that no red shirts died, but we are not going out anymore based on simple army denials. Then again, being under a state of emergency and regulations related to censorship is hardly conducive to investigative journalism.

There seems very little coverage or pushback from the Thai mainstream media over the new censorship. Well aside from Pravit in The Nation:

Supinya suggests that the government seek court orders before shutting media outlets that it claims incite violence or insurrection or spread rumours. She also warns that some people may see the current crackdown as a exhibiting a double standard vis-เ-vis the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which has multimedia resources on its side as well.

Ubonrat Siriywasak, former lecturer of mass communications at Chulalongkorn University, said the crackdown reflected the refusal of the government to accept the basic principle of freedom of expression.

"How can it claim we're in a democracy?" Ubonrat asked.

She said there should be trust that debate will lead towards finding out what is true, and the government should not look at the red-shirt media as parts of a mere propaganda machine.

She also urged all media operators to exercise responsibility in what they reported or wrote and not incite violence or hatred.

BP: Why can't we be told or at least some details provided of the content of those websites which caused them to be censored? At least one of them downmerng.blogspot.com, mostly chooses mainstream Thai language newspaper articles it likes and posts them in full. It sometimes posts links to translations from the other pro-Thaksin sites. If spreading rumours is going to be the standard for a shutdown, which media outlet would survive?

Political Prisoners in Thailand also has some comments here.