And Some People Actually Think Being Ruled by Bureaucrats is a Good Thing

'No idea' about bill

The Nation

Members of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) are divided over the Alcohol Con-sumption Control Bill which is scheduled for further vetting today.

A Bangkok seminar was told yesterday that while the 24-hour ban on alcohol commercials had been dropped from the bill in previous hearings, NLA members were debating whether radio and television commercials with "non-persuasive content" should be allowed air time, or if advertising spots with persuasive content should be banned between 5am and 10pm.

Sawaeng Bunchalermwiphas, an NLA member and a Thammasat University law lecturer, said he was worried because many NLA members "had no idea" of how dangerous the non-persuasive content could be while some of them knew what it was - but still voted to support it.

Seriously, how stupid is this?

And:

Minister: novels to be rated


Culture Minister Khunying Khaisri Sri-aroon yesterday said she disagreed with a proposal to cut "romantic" scenes from translated novels.

She said it would ruin the taste for readers and affirmed that she would invite national artists, academics and publishers to formulate a rating criteria.

Following the ministry's plan for book ratings - especially for romantic and translated novels - as proposed by the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand (PUBAT), many public members posted their concerns that love scenes in books might be cut and placed their objections on www.m-culture.co.th.

They argued that romantic scenes were not obscene as the translators and publishers used "sensitive descriptions" and urged the ministry to hear the opinions of the public and related parties before making a decision.

Khaisri said most of those who expressed opinions on the ministry's website agreed to the book rating according to readers' age but disagreed with the content cutting.

Thanks to Thailand Crisis for the 2nd article.

I wonder if the Thai Culture Ministry is going to start sanitizing such Thai classics as Khun Chang Khun Phan and The Story of Jan Dara for their sexual descriptions.