JUNE 18, 2005 Posted: June 30, 2005 thai-insider.com and fm9225.comCENSORED The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT) issued an order to shut down www.thai-insider.com and www.fm9225.com for allegedly threatening national security and disturbing public order, and for allegedly failing to register the owners’ names properly, according to local and international news reports.
Overviewby Abi Wright Threats to press freedom spiked throughout Asia in 2004, even as the news media claimed significant accomplishments. Across the region, 2004 was an election year, with citizens casting ballots in nations such as Afghanistan, whose landmark vote was peaceful and orderly, and India, where more than 370 million went to the polls.…
ThailandPopulist Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s press freedom record has been less than stellar since he took office in 2001. His political and financial interference, legal intimidation, and coercion continued to have a chilling effect on critical voices in the Thai press in 2004.
New York, February 15, 2005—Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Pongkiat Saetang, editor of the bimonthly newspaper Had Yai Post, near a market in Had Yai, in southern Thailand’s Songkhla Province yesterday. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating to determine whether he was killed for his journalistic work. Two assailants shot Pongkiat twice in the…
FEBRUARY 14, 2005 Posted: February 15, 2005 Pongkiat Saetang, Had Yai Post, KILLED—UNCONFIRMED Unidentified gunmen shot and killed Saetang, editor of the bimonthly newspaper Had Yai Post, near a market in Had Yai, in southern Thailand’s Songkhla Province. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating to determine whether he was killed for his journalistic work.
Around the world, 122 journalists were in prison at the end of 2004 for practicing their profession, 16 fewer than the year before. International advocacy campaigns, including those waged by the Committee to Protect Journalists, helped win the early release of a number of imprisoned journalists, notably six independent writers and reporters in Cuba.
New York, August 25, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the civil libel suit filed this week by the telecommunications giant Shin Corporation against media activist Supinya Klangnarong. The lawsuit seeks damages of Bt400 million (US$10 million). The Thai-language newspaper the Thai Post and three of its editors—Thaweesin Sathitrattanacheewin, Roj Ngammaen, and Kannikar Wiriyakul—are…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned that Thailand’s criminal defamation laws are being used to suppress critical voices. In June, a court ruled that telecommunications giant Shin Corporation could sue media reformer Supinya Klangnarong for criminal libel. On July 5, London Times’ Bangkok correspondent Andrew Drummond was convicted of criminal libel in a separate suit.
For the last two years, Thailand’s powerful and freewheeling media have been reeling from the effects of a popular and savvy prime minister who seems intent on using his absolute majority in Parliament to control the press. The process has been as subtle as it has been painful, with journalists saying that most pressure is…