Premier will try to spare websites

The government will try not to shut down websites with content deemed offensive to the monarchy but will take legal action against those responsible, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday.

His comment came one day after the director of the non-profit web board at prachatai.com was charged with violating the Computer Crime Act.

Abhisit said those in charge of the web board had a duty to make sure no lese-majeste comments were posted.

"I am willing to listen if they have any doubts," the premier said.

Asked by the media why those prosecuted seemed to be media critical of the government, Abhisit said he would look into the matter. "They can always file a complaint," he said.

Buranat Samutarak, spokesman for the ruling Democrat Party, insisted there was not bias against any media in particular and said the law would be applied impartially to prevent the monarchy becoming politicised.

He said he opposed a recent move by 50 international academics to reform lese-majeste law, however, saying there was a "hidden agenda".

Meanwhile media-reform campaigner Supinya Klangnarong said the raid and arrest of Chiranuch Premchaiporn of prachatai.com was wrong and was creating a climate of fear.

Supinya, who is coordinator of the Thai Netizen Network, said police could have just put out a summons instead of raiding the office as they did on Friday afternoon, making it doubly difficult for the person charged to seek bail.

"Arrest should be the last resort. I'm worried as the prime minister told us [during a meeting on January 13] that he would try to ease the situation. It's terrible. They could have done it differently."

Supinya said webmasters were increasingly careful these days and normally police would ring them when anything dubious was posted, which they hadn't done on this occasion. She said prachatai.com's skeleton staff were probably unable to delete offensive matter as promptly as other websites.