Police visited the red-shirt FM97.25 MHz community radio station in Samut Prakan province's Samrong area yesterday afternoon to warn the 300 red shirts protecting the station they were breaking the emergency decree and could face up to two years in prison as well as Bt40,000 in fines.

This warning, however, was met with boos as the red shirts vowed to stay put. For the first time yesterday, the red-shirt leaders stationed at the Rajprasong intersection, urged the protesters to go and protect the station, saying the police would try to shut it down soon.

A team of four officers, led by Pol Lt-Colonel Kachornsak Promchana, went to the site to distribute the warning leaflets, but the crowds who took the notices appeared more angry than fearful.

"This is a dark time and I am worried," radio show host Wuth Model said, as the red shirts started barricading the station with car tyres. "When people are accused, they are given a chance to clarify themselves. But the state is shutting down our eyes and ears, preventing us from clarifying our position. It's like May 1992 again, when the media was shutdown or was one-sided."

When asked about his thoughts on allegations the red-shirt media is a propaganda tool, Wuth said the red-shirt station was no different from the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) ASTV channel, which was still broadcasting freely. Wuth said via ASTV, the yellow shirts had warned the Abhisit Vejjajiva government that if it failed to crush the red-shirt protest soon, they would do it "themselves".

"Such media is not criticised. Isn't this preferential treatment? If you say we are inciting people, they are doing it even more," he said.

Kruawan Immanothai, 53, a housewife from the area who joined the reds to guard the station, when asked about what she thought about the red-media being a propaganda tool, said: "We all have brains and can decide by ourselves... We have learnt what we didn't know before. We must be able to receive [information] from both sides and will refuse to be fed with one-sided news."

The area is regarded as being predominantly red and all of Samut Prakan, along with Nonthaburi and Bangkok, is under the emergency decree.

At the station, food is available around the clock as the crowd listens to speeches being relayed from the main rally site at Rajprasong intersection. However, the relay was often interrupted with beeping signals, believed to be sent by the authorities.

After the police team left at 4.10pm, Wuth told the crowds: "They may crack down on the protesters [at Rajprasong intersection] within a day or two and will shut down our radio station, but we must persevere."