Junta: We will shut you down

2006-09-22 07:47

Bangkok - Thailand's new military government threatened on Friday to shut down media that violate tough new regulations, including bans on radio call-in shows and limits on websites and text messaging.

The new regulations limit the public's ability to express themselves in the media, but did not include limits on newspapers or other publications.

"We have asked for cooperation, but violators ... could face a shut down of their businesses," Thaneerat Siritachana, the technology ministry official tasked with enforcing the new rules, said.

"SMS and phone-in programs, as well as websites that allow readers to express their ideas and opinions have been banned," Thaneerat said.

The junta suspended the constitution and imposed martial law after taking power from former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra late Tuesday. They said they would block "disinformation" deemed harmful to the junta, and have blacked out CNN and BBC reports on the coup.

Webmasters must take responsibility for messages

Under the new rules, radio stations are prohibited from airing phone calls from listeners, even on topics as benign as traffic reports.

Television stations have also been barred from broadcasting text messages sent in from viewers' cellphones, a popular feature on several Thai television programmes.

Websites, especially those with discussion boards, have been ordered to remove messages that refer to the monarchy, according to the Nation newspaper.

They are also banned from posting messages that are "detrimental to peace and morality, and webmasters must take responsibility for all messages posted on their site," the paper said.

Thai media executives met for nearly two hours on Thursday with military officials to discuss the new rules, raising serious concerns about the new limits on press freedom.

"I want to know how free people are to express their opinions," an official from Chula radio, a university broadcaster, told the generals during the meeting.

"We have many critics and academics who express their opinions on our programmes," he said, worrying that dissenting voices would be silenced.

Swift condemnation

The Campaign for Popular Media Reform, a rights group that had repeatedly locked horns with Thaksin, urged the military to scrap the new rules.

"Even though we (realise) that the administration ruled by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was vigorously violating the principle of democracy and civil rights ... we consider that the military coup is not a democratic solution either," the group said in a statement.

Thaksin had been accused of using his personal fortune and his political office to silence his critics, filing a barrage of criminal defamation suits against Thai media.

The new rules have drawn swift condemnation from international press rights groups.

- AFP