Website censorship in Thailand - 2008-2009 Website censorship in Thailand - 2002-2007 Censorship lifted on some websites - RSF, April 27, 2009 Thai website to protect the king - BBC News, February 5, 2009 The government in Thailand has set up a special website urging people to inform on anyone criticising the monarchy... ProtecttheKing.net Threats worry Thai Internet community - Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 2009 Is Thailand a new enemy of the Internet? - Reporters Without Borders, January 12, 2009 And then they came for me - The Sunday Leader, January 11, 2009 Interesting editorial from a Sri Lankan newspaper... Censorship and madness in Thailand - UPI, January 8, 2009 ...Then there are opinion pieces like the one in Matichon Daily last month urging friends or relatives of someone showing signs of listening to the king's critics to take the person promptly for psychological treatment... Sacrava website officially blocked in Thailand for lèse-majesté: Thai DemoCRAZY? - KI, January 7, 2009 ...It is quite a feat indeed for our Cambodian born artist!... It appears that on many of the blocked sites, ICT is using the dishonest method of returning a 404 error instead of informing the user the site is blocked. Right: Result of trying to access the Sacrava site via ISP KSC. (Source: ICT website intro) Thailand have blocked 2,300 websites for insulting monarchy : ICT - The Nation, January 6, 2009 Thai authorities have blocked 2,300 websites for allegedly insulting monarchy and are waiting for court approval to take action on another 400 websites.... On the forum: ICT Tentacles ICT website New government plans to step up online censorship - RSF, December 31, 2008 ..."By trying to protect the king's image, the government is actually doing it harm and in some cases the charge of lese-majeste has been entirely inappropriate and unjustified," Reporters Without Borders said. "Australian author Harry Nicolaides was arrested exactly four months ago today and has been held in a Bangkok jail ever since on a lese-majeste charge for writing just two lines about a close relative of the king without even naming him. We reiterate our call for his release..." New ICT minister vows to curb rogue websites - Bangkok Post, December 29, 2008 ...The new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) minister has vowed to make it a priority to block websites insulting the monarchy. Ranongrak Suwanchawee told senior ICT officials that most of the websites originated outside the country and would be blocked, as would sites considered obscene and those offering online games and gambling. She said her predecessor in the post mistakenly believed that little could be done to control sites originating overseas... 2008 Thailand Blocklist Analysis - 1,303 new websites censored! - FACT, December 20, 2008 ...While we may never learn the real extent of government Internet censorship, these blocklists provide us some perspective for analysis in the current ultra-Royalist social climate. Typically, web censorship in Thailand is conducted in secret. We think there is a right to know inherent in a free society. We call for transparency and accountability in government and freedom of expression, freedom of communication and freedom of association as fundamental human rights. Government reinforces online censorship in name of protecting king’s reputation - Reporters Without Borders, November 18, 2008 Reporters Without Borders condemns the Thai information ministry’s decision at the start of the month to spend up to 12 million euros on creating an Internet firewall to filter out websites deemed guilty of lese-majeste. “The Thai government’s desire to control online content is indicative of the difficulties it is encountering in recovering some support,” Reporters Without Borders said. “As King Bhumipol Adulajey is very popular, being over-protective of his image is one of the ways the government is using to win over those calling for its overthrow...” Govt to spend Bt100 mln to block offensive websites - Bangkok Post, October 28, 2008 The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) plans to spend about 100 million to 500 million baht to build a gateway to block websites with contents defaming the royal institution... According to the minister, thousands of the websites have been found to have information offending the monarchy, but they could not be revealed because internet users would visit them once they are known... Reader Reports: PI banned in Thailand - Seattle Post Intelligencer, October, 2008 400 websites shut down - Bangkok Post, September 2, 2008 The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry has detected more than 1,200 websites that violated the Computer Crime Act - of which 344 had content deemed insulting to the monarchy... Internet data law goes into force Aug 23 - Bangkok Post, August 13, 2008 ...Cyber offences, ranging from email forwarding of pornographic pictures to posting libellous messages on forums, are on the rise, Pol Col Yannapol said, but police agencies find it hard to gather the evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice. He said internet cafes will also be required to collect information to identify computer users, such as ID cards, time of logging in and sites visited. Shops that fail to heed the rules will face fines up to 500,000 baht, he said. Web-board user accused of lèse majesté for allegedly posting comments about Phufa shops - Prachatai, August 6, 2008 ...The charge was filed by Monthani Tantisuk, a DJ/writer/translator, after both of them argued in the forum about her books on November 12, 2007.  According to Phisek, police came to see him at work on June 25, but refused to show him the alleged passages.  They just referred to the argument between an alias ‘Krobkrua Mafia (Mafia family)’, who made criticisms of Monthani’s translation works, and Monthani who claimed that her books were on sale at the Phufa outlets... Thailand’s computer cops - gregtodiffer, August 1, 2008 Hi-Thaksin back as Thai-Grassroots.com - June 10, 2008 It seems that much of the content and graphics of the closed website Hi-Thaksin.com is back online at Thai-Grassroots.com. Hi-Thaksin.com voluntarily closed in the wake of the bad publicity following the April 25 PAD gathering at Thammasat University. BBC reporter faces legal harassment in Thailand - CPJ, June 6, 2008 The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the legal harassment of BBC correspondent Jonathan Head in Thailand. A high-ranking police official, Lt. Col. Wattanasak Mungkandee, has filed two separate criminal complaints alleging that the journalist insulted the monarchy—charges that Head and the BBC have called unfounded... Lese-majeste accusations used to restrict freedom of expression - RSF, June 5, 2008 ...In an interview for the “Khao Den Praden Ron” news programme on radio 96.5 MHz six days before, the minister was asked about bringing legal action against websites over content constituting lese-majeste. He replied: “Doing so will become a big scandal. We’d better suppress the news. Someone higher than me is of this opinion...” Media rights group condemns Thai censorship in name of king - AFP, June 5, 2008 ...Reporters Without Borders accused politicians of manipulating the law for their own protection while claiming that they are defending the king. "The targeted websites have not insulted the monarchy, they have criticised the (opposition) Democrat Party. Political parties are using the monarchy to legitimise their activities," the group said in a statement... Tradition versus modernity keep Thai politics in turmoil - Vancouver Sun, June 6, 2008 [This article posits that the coup and current political turmoil is all about the succession.] ...The reality of the succession is that it will be decided by the royal Privy Council and the senior military officers. Parliament will only be called in later to approve what has been arranged. The 2006 coup was launched after Thaksin started appointing his own loyalists to senior military positions and thus manoeuvring to influence the royal succession... Exploring 29 websites alleged by Democrat Party to have lese majeste content - Prachatai, May 30, 2008 Two websites illegally blocked; twenty nine banned for discussion on monarchy - Prachatai/AHRC, May 28, 2008 On the forum: The 29 websites that could be blocked Webmasters get warning - Bangkok Post, May 28, 2008 ...Mr Chalerm said his ministry had worked closely with police to inspect the sites and found that 29 websites currently posted improper information. The sites would be shut down or blocked shortly. He said 22 were based in Thailand while the others were overseas-based. He said so far he has tracked down the webmasters of 27 sites and had talks with them to make them understand that releasing such inappropriate information via their websites was a legal offence, regardless of its origin. Violators would be charged with conspiracy and punished under security-related laws, he said. ICT Minister assures ISPs - no punishment for blocking offensive websites - Prachatai, May 22, 2008 ...ICT Minister said that there had been an order from ‘high above’ not to block the websites and to allow the free flow of information, on the grounds that foreigners do not understand the blocking and may form negative perceptions. Chalerm to invoke the security law to shut down 29 controversial websites - The Nation, May 20, 2008 Websites under police scrutiny - Content deemed to be critical of monarchy - Bangkok Post, May 20, 2008 ...Pol Lt-Gen Rapipat was responding to a demand yesterday by the Democrat party that the government investigate and shut down 29 websites which allegedly published comments deemed unpleasant to the monarchy. The party's assistant secretary-general, Thepthai Senpong, said an investigation found at least 29 websites with content insulting to the institution. Censoring Free Speech in Thailand - Global Voices Online, May 17, 2008 ...The first draft of this cybercrime law included the death penalty, though, on final passage, the strictures were reduced to “only” 20 years for some computer crimes... ICT and TOT deny blocking Prachatai, saying possibly a technical error - Prachatai, May 15, 2008 ...Today, TOT customers have also not been able to access www.sameskybooks.org. An employee of TOT later told Prachatai that the Same Sky website had lese majeste contents, but he did not know whether the ICT or the TOT had ordered the blocking... "Prachatai" website is made inaccessible in several areas - Prachatai, May 15, 2008 DSI 'powerless' over YouTube's content - Bangkok Post, April 26, 2008 ...The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has conceded it can do nothing about some of the content of the YouTube website considered as lese majeste and against the Thai monarchy, apart from seeking cooperation from the webmaster. Speaking at a seminar between the DSI and webmasters, Pol Col Yarnpol Yangyuen, the chief of the DSI's office of technology cases and examination centre, said YouTube is an international website based in another country, so the DSI cannot take legal action against it for lese majeste... Hi-Thaksin website says 'bye' Thaksin - Bangkok Post, April 29, 2008 Finland police unblock Thai website - Facthai, February 22, 2008 YouTube and the rise of geolocational filtering - Opennet.net, March, 2008 ICT to 'hack & crack' foreign websites offensive to Thai supreme institution - Prachatai, March 17, 2008 A March 15 report in Krungthep Turakij newspaper quoted a source at the ICT that the ministry could pursue legal proceedings only with websites registered in Thailand, and is now planning a 'hack and crack' programme to hack offensive websites hosted abroad and delete their contents, because the legal process would take too long. "This approach may be somewhat illegal, but sometimes it might be worth it, if [the websites] are really unacceptable," the source said. One website registered abroad has been found to advertise merchandise including calendars, dolls, bags, hats, glasses, watches, trousers and underwear, all with a logo of the Buddha meditating on a lotus, with the face of a dog.  It was reported to have upset many Buddhists... Fah Diew Kan website shut down Website shut down over royal content - The Nation, January 6, 2008 ..."Such censorship must be by court order only, and no application was made for one. This must be preceded by a letter of inquiry, not immediate closure. Furthermore, should an entire business be shut down because of private-individual posts to its site? Are the other websites hosted on the same server merely unimportant collateral damage?" the group said... More cyberterrorism greets new year in Thailand - FACT, January 5, 2008 Thai free press needs your help! - visions.cz, January 5, 2008 Fah Diew Kan website shut down; lèse majesté alleged - Prachatai, January 5, 2008 From 2004: Survey of Fah Diaw Kan Website censorship in Thailand - 2002-2007