FACT - Freedom Against Censorship Thailand

Samuel Thorne Zimmerman at California’s College of the Redwoods has made some interesting observations for his English 1A, Summer 2004.

Both American and international web sites that sell memberships to view little girls in sexually provocative attire and poses have become common.  Further, they seem to face few legal hindrances.  What does this say about popular culture?…Paid memberships for accessing galleries of photos of these children imply only one thing:  they are providing entertainment…Webe Web uses www.childsupermodels.com as a common index to promote the sites.  Www.childsupermodels.com is a Top 100-style index that invites anyone with a web site of this genre to submit her site for display here.  Even competing companies such as PreTeenModeling.tv and Stormy’s Lil-Darlins.com advertise their sites here…The girls range in age from seven to sixteen, but tweens outnumber teens by about seven to two.  There are no adults or males.  If the sample galleries are any indication, members see the girls in various skimpy costumes and various states of undress, and in various flirtatious and provocative poses…The open availability of this form of entertainment implies a change in popular culture – particularly the culture of childhood…According to a 2002 Wired News article by DeClan McCullagh, Representatives Mark Foley and Nick Lampson co-sponsored a bill intended to overcome exactly this sort of problem by prohibiting commercial photography of anyone under 17 years old.  Unfortunately, such a law would have made all modeling by children, and even sales of posters of child stars such as the Olsen Twins who were then going on 16, illegal.  Considering the effect such a change would have had upon popular culture, along with the fact that there has been no outrage concerning it, we can safely infer that Foley’s and Lampson’s bill didn’t pass.

[FACT comments:  Electronic Frontiers Finland (Effi) was one of the earliest international supporters of FACT's petition against all censorship. The current censorship situation in Finland now, uncannily, mimics almost precisely the development of Internet censorship in Thailand. Even the number of sites blocked initially is very similar to our figures of 2004.

The Finnish blocklist is secret...as is Thailand's. Whole domains are arbitrarily blocked in Finland...as in Thailand. Many websites blocked are collateral damage in Finland...as in Thailand. Proper oversight to Finnish censorship has not been applied so that quirky Websites for hearing aids, teachers, musical instruments, dolls, computer repair and gay rights are blocked...as they are in Thailand.

What would never occur Thailand is seeing our fond memorial image of the late HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana at age 84 blocked as child pornography!

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) demands an immediate apology by the Finnish government to the Royal Family, the Thai people and the Thai government, all of  whom are still in mourning for the Princess' death.

FACT respectfully requests the Prime Minister of Thailand, the Foreign Minister and the Minister of Culture make diplomatic protest over this thoughtless, unforgivable slight to the Thai throne.

Lese majeste is a serious crime in Thailand, punishable by 15 years imprisonment. FACT demands that lese majeste charges be filed immediately against the Finnish government authorities responsible.

FACT demands the Thai Ambassador to Finland  be recalled immediately in protest. Breaking diplomatic relations with Finland would not be too severe a lesson for such an insult to Thai monarchy.

We often think of ourselves here in Thailand as an emerging democracy and look to the Scandinavian countries in particular as protecting freedoms above all. Once censorship takes poisoned root, it is very difficult for government to back down.

The Finnish situation demonstrates a classic paradox: if some censorship is good (and who can deny that child pornography must be bad?), then more must be better. Censors never know where to stop.

The secret Finnish blocklist follows...] Read the rest of this entry »

Protest the closure of  Fah Diew Kan / Same Sky NOW!!!

Ministry of Information and Communication Technology
E-mail:     <mict_mict@yahoo.co.th>
Websites: <http://ict.cyberclean.org/>
<http://www.mict.go.th/home/home.php>
MICT’s censorship pages are currently under construction:
<http://w3.mict.go.th/> [formerly <i-am-thai.com>
Tel:            02-505-8886 and 02-505-8888
Fax:           02-568-2500

Otaro Company, Ltd.
Email:     <support@otaro.co.th>
Website: <http://www.otaro.co.th/>
Tel.           02-755-9604
Fax.          02-755-9605

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

More cyberterrorism greets new year in Thailand –Fah Diew Kan closed!

The website for Same Sky Books, publisher of Fah Diew Kan, a magazine of Thai contemporary criticism, has been shut down by Thailand’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology. The reasons given were lese-majeste comments posted to Same Sky’s public Webboard.

The ICT Ministry has previously asked Fah Diew Kan to self-censor such comments on its Webboard and Same Sky has complied. However, on this occasion no warning was given. Read the rest of this entry »

The Juthamas scandal: Is the U.S. trying to manage Thailand’s elections?
CJ Hinke, Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT)

A $1.7 million bribery scandal involving former Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor, Juthamas Siriwan, broke this week with the arrest of two Americans. Juthamas was also Deputy Leader of the Puea Pandin Party, a post which she has now resigned.

Juthamas was a top-level bureaucrat at TAT before becoming its Governor from 2002 to 2006. Tourism is a large component of the Thai economy and TAT has one of the largest non-military budgets in government. Obviously, anyone associated with managing Thailand’s tourist economy wields great power. Read the rest of this entry »

[CJ Hinke of FACT comments: Some of the points raised in this article are the very reasons our Computer-Related Crimes Act was passed into law. One can only be horrified that any government considers cyberwar against its own citizens. Internet censorship is only the most visible aspect of this. Government insists that we should be afraid. This makes Thailand, and the world, more insecure rather than giving us security.] CyberwarBruce Schneir, Cryptogram/Counterpane SecurityThe first problem with any discussion about cyberwar is definitional. I’ve been reading about cyberwar for years now, and there seem to be as many definitions of the term as there are people who write about the topic.Some people try to limit cyberwar to military actions taken during wartime, while others are so inclusive that they include the script kiddies who deface websites for fun. I think the restrictive definition is more useful Read the rest of this entry »

[CJ Hinke of FACT comments: Studs Terkel is an elder statesman of American oral history. He's been there, done that. Do we dare to be blacklisted by government like the "Communists" of 1976?
How far are we really willing to go to speak out for freedom? Labour unions, politics, petitions. It's incredible how many progressive Thais just won't sign FACT's petition. FACT is "too radical".
I don't think so. I don't think there's radical enough a citizen can do to resist the unjust actions of their government. Don't you believe in the future? Aren't you a hero?]

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
The Wiretap This Time
Studs Terkel
The New York Times: October 29, 2007

EARLIER this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the White House agreed to allow the executive branch to conduct dragnet interceptions of the electronic communications of people in the United States. They also agreed to “immunize” American telephone companies from lawsuits charging that after 9/11 some companies collaborated with the government to violate the Constitution and existing federal law. I am a plaintiff in one of those lawsuits, and I hope Congress thinks carefully before denying me, and millions of other Americans, our day in court.

During my lifetime, there has been a sea change in the way that politically active Americans view their relationship with government. In 1920, during my youth, I recall the Palmer raids in which more than 10,000 people were rounded up, most because they were members of particular labor unions or belonged to groups that advocated change in American domestic or foreign policy.

Unrestrained surveillance was used to further the investigations leading to these detentions, and the Bureau of Investigation — the forerunner to the F.B.I. — eventually created a database on the activities of individuals. This activity continued through the Red Scare of the period. Read the rest of this entry »

[CJ Hinke of FACT comments: Some FACT readers may well have found our comments about the destruction of the Buddhas at Bamiyan a mental stretch. This article will prove even moreso. The fight against censorship is seeing the world in its political and human aspects. What does 'freedom' really mean?
The "war on terror" has replaced private political terrorism with state terrorism. Make no mistake, state terrorism has always been with us, just not as blatant!
The rest of the world may be talking about the non-issue of nukes in Iran. For us in Thailand, there is an issue of real and human importance happening right now: the continuing violence in the Muslim South.
The Thai Muslims I know are Thais first and Muslims second. I have never met a Thai Muslim who does not love the King.
FACT is politically non-partisan, as am I personally, but I view with great hope a Muslim challenge to the Democrat Party by real Southerners, Puea Pandin Party organised by acquitted Jamaah Islamiya suspect, Waemahadi Waedaoh. Puea Pandin promises to stop the senseless and useless Southern violence. The very fact that the government tried Waemahadi gives me great hope in his integrity.
I hope Southern Thais give them a chance. We don't have any other solution.]

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Fearing Fear Itself
Paul Krugman
The New York Times: October 29, 2007

In America’s darkest hour, Franklin Delano Roosevelt urged the nation not to succumb to “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.” But that was then. Read the rest of this entry »

[CJ Hinke of FACT comments: In my view, this man is a cyberterrorist. Despite our repugnance at pornography, hate speech, defamation, terrorism, these are real opinions by real people who deserve a voice. Call it the price a society pays for free expression. The real issue is who gets to decide what these 'crimes' are. We must not make free expression on the Internet different from freedom of expression in real life. Only when these crimes are put into practice, may we make use of satisfactory existing law to punish them.  Incidentally, Shahda seems to be a purfeyor of another sort olf dangerous disinformation: the connection of Iraq's Saddam to 9/11.  Yes, even Shahda deserves a forum!  See article following specific to Thailand.]

What to Do About Pixels of Hate
Jodi Hilton
The New York Times: October 21, 2007

NOT WAITING FOR GOVERNMENT Joseph G. Shahda is waging a private war on militant Web sites.

ONE by one, starting a few weeks ago, 40 militant Islamist Web sites got knocked off the Internet. Gone were some of the world’s most active jihadi sites, with forums full of extremist chatter.

This disappearance mystified American counterterrorism officials. They hadn’t shut them down, they knew, so who had?

Happily claiming credit for the jihadi blackout is a Christian-Lebanese engineer named Joseph G. Shahda, who is waging a private, and passionate, war on terrorism from his home near Boston. Read the rest of this entry »

FACT readers may have noticed that Page 15 of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) / China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) report, “Journey to the Heart of Censorship” lists some of the anonymous proxy websites used in China to get around censorship blocklists. Although this list is a little dated, many of these are still accessible by searching their name+proxy. It is possible to use Chinese anticensorware to unblock Thai censors!

In many ways, we are in a worse position than China because the Cybercrime Law criminalises concealing one’s IP address by use of anonymous proxies or circumvention software. However, using an HTTPS secure-socket proxy site rather than HTTP should help to conceal your activity.