Thailand’s military junta blocked access to the ‘Midnight University’ website on Wednesday. (http://www.midnightuniv.org) The site had also been temporarily blocked shortly after the 2006 coup. The website contains over 10,000 free Thai academic articles within fields of the humanities, arts and social sciences.
The website administrator of Midnight University said on Wednesday that the website cannot be accessed through a number of ISPs, as the user would be redirected to a announcement of the junta, which states: “temporarily closed down according to the order of the National Council for Peace and Order.”
However, site URLs aside from the main homepage are still accessible. The last articles published by the site included calls for the military junta to release those detained under martial law and to reveal information about the whereabouts of the detainees.
It also displayed an open letter from Chiang Mai University academic Atthachak Sattayanurak warning against the danger of the military takeover. The website was founded in 1998 by the late, well-known academic Somkiat Tangnamo, former Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University.
Midnight University website before being closed down
The screen stating the order of the National Council for Peace and Order
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