The Thai government retained a ban on the Youtube.com Web site on Thursday, despite the removal of a short film deemed insulting to the king. Although the offending video was withdrawn, the site continued to feature at least one still frame from the contentious 44-second clip. "[Getting rid of the video] is not enough," said Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, the minister of information and technology. "We want the picture removed too before we unblock it." After the site was blocked and news of the ban circulated, the number of viewers of the video skyrocketed, with more than 40,000 visiting the site in about 24 hours. Total views reached 66,553 before the video was pulled.
AP
AP
Thai daily newspaper the Bangkok Post has acted as the voice of the Zionist lobby and Israel when covering the major developments of the Middle East and world of Islam, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The IRNA claims that the paper referred to the Lebanese as "terrorists" during that country's war with Israel last year, always speaks negatively about the Thai government's warming relations with Iran, devotes too much attention to Israeli issues, and used a recent editorial to question Iran's capturing of British marines while they were in the territorial waters of Iraq. "The media experts of Southeast Asia believe that the Bangkok Post editorial is in line with the goals of the media centers associated with Zionists aiming to make Iran give up its inalienable international rights," the IRNA said. The IRNA did not mention Cha-am Jamal, a frequent Bangkok Post columnist who is outspoken in his opposition to Israel and the oppression of Muslims around the world. According to Answers.com, about 200 Jews live in Thailand.IRNA
Thailand’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology blocked access to YouTube.com and several other Internet sites on Wednesday in a crackdown on material that was allegedly insulting to the country’s monarch. The Thai government asked Youtube's management to take down the video, but the request was refused on the grounds of freedom of speech. The video in question depicted the king with clown features painted onto his face and an image of feet pasted over his head. Winai Yoosabai, head of the censorship unit at the MCIT, said his department was looking for the person responsible for posting the clip of the king, which had been viewed more than 16,000 times and was posted by someone using the name Paddidda. Since the military government came to power by overthrowing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last September, it has banned Web sites, instructed the media to minimize reporting about Thaksin and blacked out broadcasts of international news channels such as CNN.The New York Times