Freedom Against Censorship Thailand says Thai Prime Minister “Lied, Lied, Lied, Lied & more Lied”

In Democracy and Freedom, Justice and Corruption on November 23, 2010 at 9:18 pm

Well, Freedom Against Censorship Thailand, at the end of the attached, says Thailand’s prime minister, Abhisit, lied, lied, lied and more lied. Just check out the people Abhisit lied to-is looks massive. Thai Intel just wants to add that the other day, The Wall Street Journal also noted that Abhisit had lied to journalist about censorship in Thailand.

The following is from Freedom Against Censorship Thailand:

At the opening of the 14th Int’l Anti-Corruption Conference at Queen Sirikit Centre for which Thailand’s Prime Minister was a keynote speaker, CJ Hinke, coordinator of Freedom against Censorship Thailand (FACT), presented the following letter by hand to Dr. Pakdee Pothisiri, commissioner of Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) on November 10.

Dr. Pakdee stated he was not really a govt representative as the Commission is an organic body under the Constitution. However, Dr. Pakdee promised to deliver this letter by hand to the Justice Minister, Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, who was also in attendance, to present it to the Prime Minister.

The delivery of FACT’s letter was witnessed by Dr. Huguette Labelle, chairman of the board to Transparency International, Barry O’Keefe, chair of the Int’l Anti-Corruption Council and Dr. Juree Vichit-Vadakan, president of the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), during the IACC’s inaugural press conference.

เกริ่นเสร็จก็เข้าถึงตัวจดหมาย      เอิ๊กๆ

10th November 2010

The Hon. Abhisit Vejjajiva

Prime Minister

Government House

Mr. Prime Minister:

According to your government’s official media releases from April 15 to today, 283,610 websites are blocked by your government.

Our website Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) has been blocked since May 9, more than six months. We host no illegal or even uncivil content.

It is ironic that an anti-censorship website should itself be censored by government.

What does a citizen do to get their website unblocked? I have been in contact with your ICT minister, your deputy prime minister will not return my calls and the military authorities at your CRES and CAPO are simply unreachable by the ordinary citizen.

Mr. Prime Minister, what about Chiranuch Premchaiporn, facing 60-years in prison under the Computer Crimes Act for statements she did not herself pose?

We wish to continue discussion of these issues with you and see our website unblocked now.

freedom,

CJ Hinke

Coordinator

Freedom Against Censorship Thailand FACT)

....................................................................

ระลึกสิ่งที่มาร์คเคยสำรอก ...................  

The Prime Minister has devoted a great deal of hot air to freedom of expression and democracy but, in fact, has continued Thailand’s massive censorship. We remind the PM of his own words:

‘No’ to censorship

Don Sambandaraksa

Bangkok Post Database, June 27, 2007

[Excerpt]:

The Democrat Party has pledged greater electronic media freedom if elected to power in the next general elections. Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva gave his views on the political turmoil and laid out his party policies on restoring the democratic process, peace in the South through prosecution of officials responsible for state atrocities and reviving the economy that has suffered from years of infrastructural neglect before fielding questions from a packed room.

“I have come up many times to express my disagreement with the way the current and previous governments handle the media, the Internet included. I am not in favour of blocking signals or blocking websites,” he said.

He said that it was a big mistake for the military junta to block CNN and BBC in the aftermath of the September 19 coup. “When they try to curb freedom of expression, they only hurt themselves,” he said. [end excerpt]

FACT Statement:

Do we really need to add that the PM has not responded to FACT’s letter despite a top official, Thongchai Sangsiri, Director of Computer Forensics at MICT, declaring Thailand’s Internet censorship “a failure”?

Frankly, Mr. Prime Minister, we’re not big on name-calling but, in your case we must make an exception. You lied to the public about your intentions on free speech before your ascendance as PM, you lied to representatives of Thai Netizen Network about the Computer Crimes Act, you lied to Prachatai about Chiranuch’s prosecution and then you lied to the FCCT about her case, you lied to the int’l audience about media freedom in Thailand and now you’ve lied to the IACC in front of 1,200 int’l participants from 130 countries. Our Prime Minister is a liar!