Thailand / Asia

  
A Thai editor's trial is being held amid a vigorous government clampdown on the Internet. Seen here, an Internet cafe in Bangkok. (Reuters/Sukree Sukplang)

Internet freedom on trial in Thailand

Hearings commenced today in the trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, executive director of the Thailand-based independent news website Prachatai. She stands accused of 10 different violations of the country’s draconian 2007 Computer Crime Act (CCA), each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.  

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Internet Blotter

Wikileaks hit by denial-of-service attack, turns to Amazon hosting… …but Amazon drops the site following pressure from a U.S. senator. Google extends its https encryption to YouTube, making video blocking harder. Censorship of the Net directly related to how authoritarian a regime is, claims a study. Venezuala’s telecom regulator proposes stronger takedown powers over Internet…

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Internet Blotter

Microsoft allows users to turn on https by default in Hotmail, but it’s still couched in warnings. Meanwhile, Access starts its own global campaign for https to be turned on for the most visited websites. Thai censorship, originally aimed at a few hundred domains, now covers over 250,000 websites. China “unpublishes” previously approved online articles…

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Internet Blotter

A powerful advocate for press and Internet freedom, Persephone Miel sadly passed away in June. The Pulitzer Center, in partnership with Internews, has launched a memorial fellowship in her name. How the Great Firewall of China breaks the global Internet: stories of Chinese re-routing and censorship affecting services in Chile, the US, and even the…

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Internet blotter

CPJ protested the arrest of Bahrain blogger Ali Abdel Imam back in September — The Wall Street Journal has a story on his continuing detainment. Activism around the imprisonment of Canadian-Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan continues: PEN Canada is  focusing on his case and Canada and France’s foreign ministers have urged his release. Local Thai ISPs are…

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Colleagues try to pull NBC soundman Bill Latch to safety during violence in Bangkok 25 years ago. Latch and correspondent Neil Davis died in the unrest. (Reuters)

In Thailand, remembering Neil Davis, Bill Latch

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) hosted a memorial Thursday to mark the 25th anniversary of the deaths of NBC cameraman correspondent Neil Davis and soundman Bill Latch. The two journalists were killed by military fire on September 9, 1985, while covering a failed coup attempt in the Thai capital. 

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A memorial to Polenghi (Reuters)

In Polenghi case, autopsy shared but more needed

Two days before Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi was fatally shot while covering widespread civil unrest in the streets of Bangkok, he posted a short message to his Facebook page: “Every day is a gift, so do your best,” he wrote in a message made more poignant by his death on May 19. More than two months…

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Thailand responds to CPJ about recent attacks on the press

Thailand’s Washington-based embassy issued an official reply to CPJ’s June 7 letter addressed to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in which we expressed our concerns about the country’s deteriorating security situation for journalists. CPJ’s letter highlighted in particular our concerns about two journalists—Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto and freelance photographer Fabio Polenghi—who were killed while covering recent clashes between anti-government protestors and security forces.

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Protesters help Nelson Rand after the France 24 journalist was shot during unrest in Bangkok. (Reuters/Adrees Latif)

Eyewitness accounts: Journalists in Bangkok under fire

Firsthand accounts from journalists covering street protests in Bangkok illustrate the severity of the crisis and the danger to the front-line press. At least eight journalists have been shot, two of them fatally, while covering the unrest in the Thai capital, CPJ research shows. On Wednesday, police entered the Buddhist temple Wat Patum, where antigovernment…

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UDD protesters fill the central commercial area of Bangkok. (AP/David Longstreath)

Dangers to reporters in Thailand creep closer

New York Times reporter Thomas Fuller was literally in the line of fire on Thursday when a dissident Thai soldier he was interviewing was shot in the head and severely wounded mid-conversation.

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