C.J. Hinke

[Internet censorship is illegal in Thailand. However censorship or forcible self censorship continues together with the abuse of lèse majesté laws—which have historically been used to tarnish political rivals. It seems Thai bureaucrats are intent on restricting free speech, bringing about a climate of fear and bludgeon the public into submission.]

The fifth order of Thailand’s military junta following its coup d’état on 19 September 2006 was to appoint an Official Censor of the Military Coup. The overthrown elected government had publicly stated that it intended to block 800,000 websites. Thailand’s official censor never got that far but he did manage to block 17,793 sites before the general election. In addition, the Royal Thai Police claimed to have blocked a further 32,500.

The junta obviously considered the Internet a dangerous place; its ICT Ministry introduced the Computer-Related Crimes Act as the first law passed by the military-appointed parliament. The initial of this cybercrime law included the death penalty; though, on its final passage, the strictures were reduced to ‘only 20 years’ for some computer crimes.

Censorship in Thailand has always been accomplished by the government in secret. The number of websites blocked, the block-lists and the methods used for such blocking have never been disclosed to the Thai public who pays for it all. The new cybercrime law however also required the government to obtain a court order before blocking.

However, since the passage of this law, web censorship has become far murkier; the law has induced Thailand’s 100 odd ISPs to engage in self censorship and independently block sites in order to avoid being penalized under the law. Hence, no court orders have been requested.

Also, ISPs are now required to keep all Internet traffic logs for 90 days. Two cyber dissidents have already been arrested under the new law for comments made on Thailand’s monarchy to a public web discussion board—after they were tracked down by their IP addresses.

Most famously, Thailand’s official censor blocked YouTube for seven months in 2007 for sophomoric anti-monarchy videos posted to the site. The ICT Ministry blocked not only YouTube’s domain, but 75 separate YouTube URLs before securing Google’s cooperation, in secret, to implement geolocational blocking at Thai government’s recommendation.

The difference between Internet censorship in Thailand and that in the Middle East, Myanmar and China is that Thailand is famously a Constitutional monarchy. We claim to be a democracy but operate government-in-secret, and one that seems above the law.

Make no mistake: Internet censorship is illegal in Thailand under at least 11 articles of the 1997 Constitution, by decree of the lawmakers’ Council of State and by order of the Administrative Court. So has this stopped the censors? Unfortunately, it did not even slow them now.

The 2007 YouTube block included hundreds of links to an unauthorized biography of King Bhumipol (‘The King Never Smiles’, published by Yale University Press); anti-coup websites; sites in support of the then deposed prime minister and voices from Thailand’s restive southern provinces. Extensive as this action was, it was merely a harbinger of censorship to follow.

Now Thailand’s newly-elected government and its new ICT Minister are using lèse majesté as its ongoing excuse to block freedom of opinion and expression by Thais on issues vital to our society. The past few weeks have seen YouTube blocked again as well as Prachatai http://www.prachatai.com/english/, Thailand’s foremost independent news portal and Same Sky (http://www.samesky.org) a journal of social criticism. Prachatai and Same Sky were both popular public web discussion boards that had been previously warned by the ICT ministry to self-censor ‘sensitive’ public comments.

Both were closed without any court order by the ICT Minister who was interviewed on the Khao Den Praden Ron radio news programme. His comments reveal that, not only was he completely aware he was acting above the law, but that the suggestion for the censorship came from those higher up in the Thai government. It seems the rose-apple is rotten to its core and that Thai bureaucrats engage in criminal acts with impunity.

Recently, the lèse majesté issue has been in the forefront of public discussion due to the arrests of Chotisak Onsoong and Chutima Penpak on several lèse majesté charges which could result in a minimum of 15 years in prison. They were accused of refusing to stand in respect for the Royal anthem at a cinema.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg; scores of lèse majesté charges hang over the fate of many a person including respected academics, the former prime minister, serving government ministers and even a BBC reporter. Any person is free to charge another with lèse majesté and these laws have historically been used as a tool for tarnishing political rivals.

Here, it needs to be emphasized that, juvenile YouTube videos notwithstanding, Thailand’s King Bhumibol is not behind any lèse majesté charges. The King has publicly invited criticism and has a long tradition of pardoning those sentenced for lèse majesté.

Instead, this vendetta against the Thai people is being conducted by Thai bureaucrats to repress free speech and thereby create a climate of fear in which all of us will be afraid to voice any opinions. They are presuming to speak for the King which is a primary definition of lèse majesté.   

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) http://facthai.wordpress.com has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission on November 15, 2006 and Thailand’s freedom of information body, the Official Information Commission, on March 23, 2007, over Internet censorship, both to no definitive result.

FACT has also made available a CD of circumvention tools “Beat the Censors - Unblock ICT!” for download. Using such tools makes Internet censorship obsolete. FACT’s petition http://facthai.wordpress.com/sign/ and http://thailand.ahrchk.net/fact_petition/ against all censorship is still active and I urge all readers to sign it. Without your help, we will never have free speech.

The canary in the coal mine and the dove of peace are both dying in Thailand. Censorship is the barometer of freedom and it is being used wholesale to bludgeon the public into submission.