<p><span lang="EN-GB">The latest edition of The Economist has been refused distribution in Thailand by its distributor due to improper content.</span></p>
<p>The censors have banned a trailer for ‘Love Julinsee Rak Man Yai Mak’ for kissing scenes performed by teenage actors.</p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation |
<p>There are times when some incidents in Thailand remind this writer of another society in a land far away. This was the case when virtually every mainstream mass media ignored certain "wires" about Thailand that were carried in WikiLeaks. </p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation |
<p>It is ironic that the “experts” and bureaucrats on the Board of Censors can decide that a film cannot be watched by the general public because it would damage “public order or morals”, yet they don’t seem to get “corrupted” themselves.</p>
By Harrison George |
<p> 14 January 2011</p>
<p>The uploading on to YouTube of the 17th set of videos from the ‘ohmygod3009’ source has followed the pattern set by previous clips over the past 4 months which purport to show corruption or improper behaviour inside the Constitutional Court.</p>
<p>The Ministry of Culture and the Department of Special Investigation will set up a panel to investigate <a href="http://www.sameskybooks.org/">Same Sky magazine</a> for alleged lèse majesté content. A group of royalists have urged a senate committee to take action against lèse majesté offenders on Facebook, and the DSI has posted an arrest warrant for a Facebook user. </p>
By Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) |
<p>The Thai Television Station Joint Censorship Committee recently banned a TV ad that featured the violent events in Bangkok in May this year, saying that the commercial might spark another round of<br />
conflict, media reports said.</p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation |
<p>The space on the Internet for dissenting political views is on the decline following the announcement by Prachatai, an online newspaper, that it will shut down its Web board by the end of this month, rights and media reform activists say. </p>
<p>The decision "is indicative of the shutdown of free speech in Thailand under the ongoing state of emergency", the Hong-Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) stated on Thursday.</p>
<p>Chiranuch Premchaiporn has informed readers that the Prachatai webboard will be closed on 31 July. The announcement should have been made a month earlier, but she has been too speechless, she says. She apologizes to readers.</p>
<p>The Prachatai webboard was created when the Prachatai website first began, and was meant to be a space for free discussion.</p>
<p>www.prachatai1.info has been blocked by the CRES since about 11 am today. www.prachatai.com, the original, was among the first batch of 36 websites ordered blocked by the CRES on 8 April. Its domain name was changed to www.prachatai.net until it was blocked on 5 May. Prachatai then changed its domain name to www.prachatai1.com which was immediately blocked on the same day. <a href="http://www.prachatai.info">www.prachatai.info</a> could continue until 20 May, and had to change to www.prachatai1.info until today. As of now (4.31 pm, 26 May), Prachatai can be accessed at www.prachatai2.info. </p>
<p>The latest number of websites closed or blocked by the CRES is 1,150, increasing from 770 as of last week. A source at the CRES, however, said that some websites had been inaccessible due to traffic overload, not ordered closed by the CRES, and blamed ISPs for redirecting to the CRES page. </p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation |
<p>People are not really questioning the government's decision to censor media, simply because they believe it is acceptable under the emergency decree, said Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of prachatai.com, which is being blocked because it is considered to be pro-red shirt.</p>