Reporters sans frontières - Thaïland Reporters Without Borders deplores the censorship, closure and banning of many media linked to the opposition United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) since the UDDs violent red-shirt demonstrations in Bangkok on 13 April.
The authorities have raided community radio stations in the north and east of the country under a state of emergency. And Internet Service Providers have been ordered to censor at least 67 websites linked to the UDD, which supports former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. We firmly condemn the violence by UDD supporters but we also deplore the reprisals which the authorities have taken against media linked to this movement, Reporters Without Borders said. If calls for violence have been made in these media, they must be punished by the courts and not in an arbitrary fashion by the police. The press freedom organisation added: Such actions by the authorities cast doubt on the desire to reconcile the different political parties professed by the government when it took office. We call for the lifting of the state of emergency, which just blocks access to news and information and encourages a climate of fear. A spokesman for the ruling Democrat Party said the radio stations were closed for inciting violence. The UDDs leaders meanwhile accused the main news media of lacking independence and of demonising their movement. Several TV crews were roughed up by red-shirts during the first few days of the UDD demonstrations. In one case, demonstrators forced the state-run NBT TV to suspend operations in the north-east by besieging its studios. <http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30889> _______________________________________________ cr-india mailing list [email protected] https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india
