RAWBangkok

Well, it seem like the latest battle for the hearts and minds of the people living in Thailand has begun.

The new Minister in charge of communications here in Thailand has been quoted extensively in the news saying that internet sites that are critical of the royal family will be blocked.

About twenty minutes ago I woke up from a deep sleep with a splitting headache.  I took a couple of Ibuprophin and decided to check my email before going back to sleep.

I use three different email providers for three different addresses (personal, work, blog).  I checked two of them (Yahoo and gmail) without any problem.  When I tried to check the third provider, however, I got this message on my screen:

ขออภัยในความไม่สะดวก
เนื่องจากมีรูปภาพ หรือข้อความที่ไม่เหมาะสม ในเว็บไซต์ที่ท่านกำลังชม

Sorry,
The web site you are accessing has been blocked by the requested of The Communication Authority of Thailand.

This was mildly alarming. I wasn’t trying to access a politically active website… I was trying to check email.

Fortunately the email address I was trying to access is the one I use the least, so no big deal, but it occurred to me that many of the sites that I read or write could be blocked.

I clicked on my bookmark for the Big Mango. They have a home page for the bar, and the blog can be accessed via that home page. I went to the home page and they have this message posted at the top:

***NOTICE: www.2thebigmango.com has been blocked by TOT in Thailand. Please be patient as we get this sorted. Check this website for updates.

I haven’t done a thorough job of checking all my favorite websites yet. The Bangkok Pundit is still on the air. It’s hard to imagine that the Farang Speaks 2 Much is being blocked but BP isn’t but there you go.

The Werewolf’s Lair Archives (my old blog) is blocked. I imagine that this site (RAW) could be blocked at some point, so I figured I’d post this blog now while I had the chance.

I have to say that this is the mentality of using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito. I read an opinion piece in one of the newspapers recently here in Thailand — probably the Bangkok Post — that talked about how blocking websites in the recent past has simply created MORE interest in the content of those sites and driven huge amounts of traffic to them so that people could see for themselves what was offensive. In effect, the government ends up exposing MORE people to the ideas than if they had simply done nothing.

This is another example of how the political process in Thailand is dysfunctional. Thailand does not have the ‘personality’ to allow the free debate and exchange of ideas that is necessary for democracy to live and grow.

So, if some of your favorite websites in Thailand stop updating content, it may be because the authors can no longer access them.  Given my inability to access my third email provider, it seems that the Ministry may be exercising hit and miss judgement on who to block.

Score one more for the bad guys.