YOUTUBE
Two more offensive videos put on site
Two more videos mocking His Majesty the King appeared on the YouTube website yesterday, despite its being blocked in Thailand.
The military-installed government has been criticised by international media over the censorship. The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology said it was in talks with site-owner Google over the case, but negotiations are thought unlikely to yield any result. Tech-savvy Thai surfers have been able to access the videos through the use of proxy servers, computers outside the country that relay YouTube content back to the original viewer. "The website will remain blocked until all the video clips are removed," said Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, the minister of information and communications technology. Those who posted the videos "want to create trouble. They have bad intentions towards Thailand," he said. The ministry blocked access to the whole YouTube site on Wednesday after Google refused to remove a video deemed insulting to His Majesty. Newspapers cannot provide a narrative of the video clips because of lese-majesty laws. Last week a Swiss man was imprisoned for 10 years for vandalising portraits of the King. The junta used lese-majesty as an excuse to stage the military coup that toppled Thaksin Shinawatra's government. State prosecutors are considering putting Thaksin on trial over the charge. The decision to block YouTube has drawn sharp criticism from media-freedom groups, who said it highlighted a growing trend for the military government to censor political expression on the Internet. "It's another example of how silly and ineffective censorship really is," said CJ Hinke, coordinator of the group Freedom Against Censorship Thailand. His group, which lobbies for an end to online censorship, says the government has blocked 45,000 websites. Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said yesterday it was concerned by the decision. It questioned the legal basis for censorship "initiated by the government and implemented with diligence by the police" without justice procedure. "The closure or blockage of an online publication is a serious decision that should require a court order," it said in a statement.
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