Ask and Ye Shall Receive
Bangkok Pundit | May 20, 2008
http://bangkokpundit.blogspot.com/2008/05/ask-and-ye-shall-receive.html
The Nation reports:
The Democrat Party Monday urged the Information and Communication Technology Ministry to shut down or block access to 29 websites which have allegedly published comments or articles deemed insulting to the Monarchy.
Democrat assistant secretary-general Thepthai Senpong said he had personally monitored these websites and found that they have content that was deemed insulting the highest institute [BP: I think "institution" is the word]
He alleged that the sites include Prachathai.com, Arayachon.org, Truthaksin.com and Thaksincomeback.org.
The Nation reports:
Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung on Tuesday said he would use the security law to close down 29 websites with contents deemed harmful to the monarchy.
“The opposition has raised the issue of harmful contents in the Internet and I have checked relevant laws to find security provisions to deal with the isse,” Chalerm said.
He said he would instruct the Provincial Administration Department, which is responsible for security issues, to coordinate with the Information and Communication Technology Ministry to block the websites.
He said service providers had no excuse to allow the harmful messages to be transmitted from abroad.
Authorities will block access to websites deemed harmful regardless speculation that some of them were linked to the People Power Party, he said.
BP: I am not sure that The Nation report is that accurate as Thai Rath includes a direct quote from Chalerm saying he will follow up on it and if there is inappropriate messages legal action will be taken. I wonder if any such content has been deleted, will the websites still be shut down? If Chalerm was to find a message in a comment on a newspaper website, will the journos start to kick up a fuss then?
Why not just state if something is illegal action will be taken? So will the opposition now start to complain about censorship when they are asking the government to censor the very information?
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