Condemnation after closure of websites and community radios<\/p>\n
Reporters Without Borders protested as Thaksin Shinawatra’s
\ngovernment demonstrated a toughening stance towards critics, closing
\nseveral community radios and two alternative news websites in the
\nspace of a week.<\/p>\n
The organisation said it was particularly concerned at the closure on
\n21 June of two controversial websites http:\/\/www.fm9225.com and
\nhttp:\/\/www.thai-insider.com, apparently on the orders of the Ministry
\nof Information and Communications Technology (ICT).<\/p>\n
“Thailand already blocks access to thousands of sites considered
\n‘inappropriate’, particularly pornographic, but also some
\npublications exposing ‘cases’ implicating the authorities,” the
\norganisation said.<\/p>\n
“However this is the first time to our knowledge that the minister
\nhas ordered a host to close a news website. It sets an extremely
\nserious precedent, all the more so since the government refuses to
\njustify its decision and even pretends not to have made it.”<\/p>\n
“We would like to remind it that the closure of an online publication
\ncan only be decided by a court; it cannot be justified by an
\nadministrative decision.”<\/p>\n
According to the English-language daily Bangkok Post, the ICT
\nministry directly contacted the web hosts companies to get the
\nwebsites removed from the Web. The ministry has so far denied being
\nbehind this censorship.<\/p>\n
The website www.thai-insider.com carried articles exposing corruption
\nand implicating the government. Its head, Ekkayuth Anchanbutr, a
\nfierce opponent of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has already
\nmoved his site to another host. Thai Insider can now be accessed on
\nwww.akeyuth.com.<\/p>\n
The site, www.fm9225.com posts broadcasts by several community radios
\nsuch as FM 92.25, which is critical of the government. According to
\nThai daily The Nation, a manager of the site said he had received a
\nletter from the department of the ICT ministry responsible for the
\nInternet saying that the site was endangering “the country’s unity
\nand security”.<\/p>\n
For more information on Internet censorship in Thailand, see:
\nhttp:\/\/www.rsf.org\/article.php3?id_article=1074<\/p>\n
The website closures come at a time when the government has begun a
\ntrial of strength with a number of community radios. The authorities
\nhave talked about wanting to regulate the sector, which comprises
\nmore than 3,000 stations, while some of the radio’s management see it
\nmore as a bid to bring them to heel.<\/p>\n
At least two such radios have been closed since a deadline was passed
\non 15 June by which all community radios had to register and to
\nresolve their “technical problems”.<\/p>\n
Reporters Without Borders is asking the government to try to find
\nnegotiated solutions to resolve the technical problems. “The rapid
\ndevelopment of community radios is good news for pluralism of news
\nand information in Thailand. It is regrettable that the government
\nshould be tempted to snuff out these fledgling radios,” said the
\norganisation.<\/p>\n
Agents of the Public Relations Department (PRD) and the regulatory
\nbody the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) closed two
\nBangkok community radios Huay Kwang and Bang Khen on 17 June 2005.
\nThe transmitter of the first and the antenna of the second were
\nseized. The authorities said they had been using non-regulation
\nequipments which was interfering with signals from other radios and
\nwith aviation.<\/p>\n
The new regulations governing community radios limit their output to
\n30 watts and a range of less than 15 kilometres. It also bans the use
\nof antennas higher than 30 metres. Operators say they need 500 watts
\nand 60-metre aerials.<\/p>\n
Radio controllers who fail to comply with these technical rules could
\nface up to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 baht (about
\n2,000 euros).<\/p>\n
The government issued two warnings in May to the station FM 92.25
\nthat its antenna was too high. To avoid closure, FM 92.25 took down
\nits antenna and launched the website www.fm9225.com.<\/p>\n
Thai journalists contacted by Reporters Without Borders said that the
\nsummary sanctions taken by the PRD against community radios could be
\nexplained by the authorities’ determination defend its own position
\nin the sector. The PRD in fact manages nearly 200 stations. The army
\nhas two TV stations and 120 radios.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Condemnation after closure of websites and community radios Reporters Without Borders protested as Thaksin Shinawatra’s government demonstrated a toughening stance towards critics, closing several community radios and two alternative news websites in the space of a week. The organisation said it was particularly concerned at the closure on 21 June of two controversial websites http:\/\/www.fm9225.com […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[10,38],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}