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Monday, May 14, 2007

Bangkok Post: Sensible Discussion About Censorship in Thailand

Clipping the Net


DON SAMBANDARAKSA' s report on a recent roundtable discussion on Internet censorship in Thailand shines a light on an issue clouded by confusion and secrecy


'The question of censorship is simple. Do we reduce the freedom of the Internet to conform to Thai society today, or do we increase freedom in our society to match the Internet? In my opinion, that decision was already made in article 78 of the 1997 constitution (on universal access to ICT). However, when the ICT Ministry was set up, their staff forgot to read the constitution."


Continued



What I thought was interesting is that there really isn't a law that regulates the internet right now, so the ICT ministry just capriciously censors whatever its wants.

But, from what I remember, there was no censorship before Thaksin. I think it was him or one of his social order cronies who went nuts over censoring the internet.

5 comments:

Gledwood said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

I have had the pleasure of meeting Don. He's sharp and I respect his writing about civil liberties and laws as they relate to technology.

One minor point, from the quote of Hinke saying, "I love the King. I don't think that what anyone says in a book or movie will change what we think about the King."

This is a very sad testament to the degree to which Thais have succumbed to cultist brainwashing. It shows that either Hinke is not open minded, or he is confident that no factual report on the royalty could possibly reveal anything negative. It sounds something Jim Jones's followers might say.

Anonymous said...

Jason, as I posted a while back, this has to have been one of the most effective propaganda campaigns in history. Not only do they claim to worship him they ascribe supernatural powers to him.

They are going to be seriously miffed when he kicks.

Fonzi said...

You have to give Hinke some slack.

He was speaking at a public forum in front of a Thai audience.

He has to qualify his statements like that or he would be Jufered and jailed.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a new verb is born. Jufered.

Excellent, it has a ring to it.

Jufered.

Rich