MONGKOL BANGPRAPA
Bangkok Post
The Election Commission has urged state agencies to ban the pro-Thaksin website www.hi-thaksin.net, after it carried messages saying that a vote for the People Power party (PPP) is synonymous to voting for deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Election Commissioner Sodsri Sattayatham said the election watchdog would ask the Information and Communication Technology Ministry (ICT) to ban the website if it continued to post messages that could reignite social divisions between pro-and anti-Thaksin groups.
The messages were inappropriate, she said, and ran counter to His Majesty the King's request for social unity, made during his birthday speech on Tuesday.
I guess any time the king makes a speech a bureaucrat can interpret his words any way he sees fit to stifle political speech and ban websites. I thought the king was above politics and his name wasn't supposed to be invoked regarding political matters. I think Sodsri has proven she isn't capable of managing and overseeing the election. Who is she to interpret the cause of social divisions? For Budda's sake, an election is the ultimate codification of social divisions-and she is running that show.
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ICT inspector-general and spokesman Tanirat Siripachana said the ministry would examine the website if the EC requested it to do so. It could take legal action if it found the website contained messages harmful to national security.
Let us see what happens tomorrow. I bet that it will be banned. I don't see why the EC can't warn the webmaster. If the website is in violation of the law for particular articles, such as in violation of the TRT ban, then it should be warned. This whimsical bureaucratic need to censor and ban everything in sight really drives me crazy.
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