Thailand is an enemy of the Internet-Bangkok Post

[FACT comments: See FACTorial: Imagine Thailand with no censorship following.]

Can internet be free again?

Bangkok Post: March 8, 2010

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/225380/can-internet-be-free-again

With an election campaign unofficially under way, the government should urgently review and loosen its harsh censorship of the internet. The massive, expensive programme has made Thailand one of the world’s most censored nations. This policy should be examined and vastly reduced in scope, or better still, binned entirely. The vast, constantly growing list of tens of thousands of banned websites needs review by an informed and independent group. Censorship has gone out of hand without oversight and accountability, and needs to be changed.

Start with the uncomfortable number: 65,000. That is how many websites had been blocked or shut down by the authorities as of last year. The public is not allowed to know the actual number, and it is debatable whether anyone really knows how much of the internet is officially interdicted and banned to Thais. The number of 65,000 was given rather triumphantly by the spokesman for the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation. He bragged that the CRES was issuing orders to the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to block websites and web pages at an average of 500 per day, and he let slip the 65,000 number.

The CRES (also openly) admitted that it blocked websites for no other reason than that they were apparently run by one of the many factions of the political opposition, the red shirts. This was legal under the martial law-like rule of the CRES. It is illegal under the constitution, where opposing the government is a virtue, not a sin.

During its existence, the CRES always refused to provide any information on individual websites blocked by Thai authorities. Because the CRES is gone, the government should begin a public review of banned websites, with an eye to opening as many as possible to internet access once again.

Many agencies are involved in censoring the internet. All have highly questionable authority under a constitution where the government is charged with protecting freedom of information, not stifling it. As far back as the Thaksin governments, the chief internet censor has been the minister of information and communications technology.

It has become a joke that the ICT Ministry stands for “Internet Censorship of Thailand Ministry”. Web censorship has become a routine. But it starts with a huge staff, working in the most opaque manner, which surfs the web looking for sites to censor. Lists are drawn up, handed to a judge who orders the sites closed or, if they are hosted in another country, blocked.

At no step in internet censorship is there oversight, accountability or responsibility. Former ICT minister Ranongruk Suwunchwee once described the process as a routine one, in which she never became involved. Both she and the current minister, Juti Krairiksh, have publicly promised to vet the ‘Net for illegal references or libel concerning the high institution.

Beyond that, no one ever has managed to breach the veil of secrecy of who selects sites to censor, or what are the criteria for censorship. For certain, no one has been able to appeal a decision to close or block an internet site.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is clearly on the verge of dissolving the Lower House for a national election. Voters need a full range of information sources, including internet sites of all political opinion.

The prime minister can do everyone a favour by ending the current secret censorship and opening a system of open review and legal appeal.