MORE THAI CENSORSHIP

Well, at least I can still post to it even if I can't view my own blog in my own country.  In yet another overreaction, Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology has ordered internet service providers here to block all blogs hosted by Blogger domain.  Apparently, a few blogs on what is certainly world's most popular blog-hosting domain were deemed offensive to Thailand.  In a repeat of the TouTube ban, many honest and respectful users in Thailand are being prevented from accessing a significant number of blogs because a few feel they need to say things against our government or royalty.

Unfortunately, I think we'll be seeing much more of this in the coming months.  Thailand has a long history of media censorship.  The 2006 ranking of press freedom conducted by Reporters Without Borders lists Thailand at 122 out of 168 (we dropped from 59 in 2004 to 107 in 2005).  Currently, Thailand is without a constitution (the 1997 version having been revoked during last September's coup) and the ruling military junta (AKA Council for National Security) has been placing all sorts of human rights restrictions on the media and internet.

One organization set up to provide information about this issue is Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT).  Luckily, their blog is hosted by the Wordpress domain so we can still access it here...for now.