Persecution of the media

The press reform goal of the government, specifically Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, clearly must begin at home. This is evident from last week's shambolic re-arrest of Prachatai.com website director Chiranuch Premchaiporn. Her case is part of a continuing and large campaign. Ms Chiranuch's serial bail payments, and her growing calendar of past and future court and police interrogation appearances show serious inattention, even disrespect, for the constitutional concept of freedom of the press.

 There are many problems with the massive media crackdown by the Abhisit government. The most obvious is the continual use of the Computer Crime Act to intimidate and silence websites, blogs, videos and other forms of legitimate media. The thousands of times this law has been invoked is telling. It means that authorities either cannot or will not bring normal legal charges. It is enormously discriminatory. If an article, a photo or a video appears in a newspaper or on a TV station it is legal; but because it is on the internet, it is not.

Back in the days of the Thaksin government, the public was assured that the Computer Crime Act (CCA) was necessary to protect against, and to prosecute, online crime. The purpose of the law was to ensure that e-commerce would be reliable, and that cheating consumers would be rigorously policed. Instead, successive governments have used the CCA to compile a list of more than 110,000 websites that must be blocked from the public's view. The list is secret, the reason for each website's ban is secret, and there is no appeal. This cannot happen with newspapers, magazines, books, TV and radio stations and so on.

Ms Chiranuch has been the personification of an unseemly, unnecessary and eventually self-defeating government policy. The current government of Mr Abhisit did not start the persecution but it has pursued it more aggressively than its predecessors. They have brought in the military in the form of the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES). The Prachatai.com website has been blocked repeatedly, under a variety of names. It is clear to all observers that the government considers Prachatai a media enemy, and has used strong-arm tactics against it.

Of course Ms Chiranuch and Prachatai must obey the law. There are many laws which protect the public against media offenders, including libel, defamation, national security, incitement and lese majeste. Use of the latter law has become controversial in many cases. Even Mr Abhisit has admitted that enemies try to misuse this law for political purposes. Courts will decide Ms Chiranuch's guilt or innocence, but her many supporters claim, and demonstrate their belief, that she is being unfairly persecuted.

With up to 120,000 websites banned, the government has surpassed the infamous and odious ''great firewall of China'' in censorship. The red shirts' TV station was never prosecuted, but has been banned. Thailand has fallen in the eyes of the world, in rankings of world press freedom. Freedom House now rates Thai media as ''partly free'', down from ''free'' in 2002. Reporters Without Borders says our media are the 130th freest in the world, not nearly as free as those of Indonesia or even the Central African Republic.

Mr Abhisit, his ministers and security officials must take steps to stop the downhill trend of press freedom. It was interesting that the premier put media reform near the top of his agenda to achieve reconciliation. But so long as politically-inspired persecution continues against selective media outlets and respected figures, reform is clearly impossible.

Via : http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/198503/persecution-of-the-media

Website arrest was unwise and politically wrong

By The Nation
Published on September 27, 2010

Jiranuch's detention a real spoiler of hopeful peace moves



It was so absurd some people saw it as an anti-government conspiracy. The arrest on Friday of a senior staff of the Prachathai website, Jiranuch Premchaiporn, who was accused of disseminating lese majeste contents on her website, which is perceived as being sympathetic to the red shirts, was uncalled for and very counter-productive politically. Whether she would be released or not doesn't matter. Damage has been done, and what a timing. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was in New York when the chief of a rebellious yet respected news website was detained.
Jiranuch, 43, was detained at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport upon returning from Finland where she had attended a media liberty event. She was taken into police custody at a time when "reconciliation" at long last was being taken seriously thanks to positive gestures from Thaksin Shinawatra, the peaceful rally of the red shirts a week ago, a campaign by a coalition partner as well as lobbying efforts by Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart. If none of the "signals" truly represents real hope for political peace, at least they did not serve to widen the national divide. Jiranuch's arrest, on the other hand, was the real spoiler.

Prachathai has for years been serving as an alternative news website. Sometimes this news and commentary outlet became controversial, but which news organisation hasn't in the midst of our political crisis? Prachathai's role is not much different from ASTV's website except for the fact that they are on the opposite side of the conflict. When it comes to hard-lined comments, stances and overzealous readers, both news outlets probably cannot beat each other. This only means the Thai authorities must be very careful in dealing with the freedom of expression flourishing on both websites to avoid charges of discrimination, injustice or double-standards.

Like the rest of the world, Thailand has been grappling with the new-found freedom provided by the digital media. The US authorities' problem with wikileaks.net confirms that even the biggest flag-bearer of democracy doesn't quite know how to handle the phenomenon or navigate the increasingly blurry line between freedom and national (or even international) security. Thanks to our long-lasting serious political conflict, Thailand can probably say we have had a head-start when it comes to dealing with the "freedom" issue. This, however, doesn't mean we know better, as underlined by various incidents which have been capped by Jiranuch's detention.

The action against Jiranuch is unwise and politically wrong, considering its potential effects on fledgling reconciliation efforts. Moreover, people who know Jiranuch- including many fellow journalists- speak of a decent person who can be anything but a threat to national security. A hard-liner she probably is, but an insurgent she is absolutely not. That the arrest triggered a storm of criticism and drew much attention on social media on Friday should provide the government with enough clues how society perceives this latest political incident.

Chiranuch, as a former web master of the now defunct prachatai's webboard, which staff insist is separated from prachatai.com the newspaper, has an ongoing case against her for violating the computer crime law. The charges came after a number of postings by web board members were deemed to constitute an act of lese majeste.

Like it or not, the arrest will draw local and international attention back toward the lese majeste issue. This is unhealthy and could even be more damaging to the beloved monarch than offensive comments on websites themselves. Of course, the laws are there and there may have been some violations, but this is an issue that deserves everything but rigid legal enforcement. Tolerance, understanding, maturity and sympathy must be allowed to play key roles - not only for offenders' sake, but also for everyone's as well as our nation as a whole.

Via : The Nation's Editorial