Thailand must rethink online censorship

Shutting down the alleged anti-monarchy websites have intensified in the post May conflict leading to a tighter regime of online surveillance. From 2000-2003, only a dozen websites based abroad were identified and remained constant at that level. However, after the controversial Manusaya.com—the long-standing anti-monarchy website—was shut down in early 2005, it has helped spurn hundreds of mirror websites. Since then the cyber war against such tentacles continue unabated. The latest unofficial figure put the number at five figures and could increase exponentially in the coming months—reflecting, imagine or real, the changing sentiment prevailing in the cyberspace and heavy political manipulation associated with such efforts.

The government is willing to spend additional hundreds million of baht to track down and shut down the websites and their URLs. But the end result would remain the same, more would appear. So far, online censorship has only negative repercussions on Thailand and its online users as it blocks public access to information and commercial transactions worldwide. It gives Thailand's extremely bad publicity and reputation, something that the country can ill afford to have at this crucial time. The Thai authorities often said they have no option but to shut down these websites, which in their view, have committed “lese majeste,” which literally means “injury to the Majesty.” Such bureaucratic responses were mostly knee-jerk reaction.

Last November, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has set up an Advisory Committee on National Security Cases Involving the Monarchy headed by Kittipong Kittiyarak, Permanent Secretary for Justice Ministry with Tharit Pengdit, Director of Department of Special Investigation (DSI), serving as its secretary general. The committee comprises all permanent secretaries from all 19 ministries. The advisory committee will serve as focal point for all “lese majeste” cases that have been filed to prevent any attempt to politicize them as have been the cases in the past. The Prime Minister, who came up with the initiative, hoped that through this committee all concerned senior officials could sit together and consult one another with comprehensive information and holistic view on all cases. As such, they would be able to make well-thought out recommendations on specific cases brought about by various government agencies, mainly the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) or DSI which handle lots of cases these days.

The committee hopes to consider cases that could be given royal pardons. Its first recommendation after their second meetings in January was to drop the charge against Jonathan Heads, a former bureau chief of BBC in Bangkok, who faced three lese majeste charge filed by the police for comments he made at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in 2008. Future cases would involve the fate of Suvicha Thakor, a blogger who posted an insulting message on the king in January last year. So is the case of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, editor of Prachathai, a web-based newspaper. Her newspaper's website allowed lese majeste comments to appear on discussion board. Before the recent political unrest, there are 28 pending cases with the police.

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