Freedom Against Censorship Thailand CENSORED!
Submitted by prachatai on Mon, 27/04/2009 - 07:38Three ISPs, including TOT ADSL, Kasetsart University and Buddy Broadband, have been blocking FACT since at least noon on April 25 and at least TOT was redirecting users via transparent proxy to a blank blockpage at Thailand’s ICT ministry.
Will FACT readers please keep us informed if and when FACTsite http://facthai.wordpress.com is blocked by other ISPs. Please let us know by email: [email protected]. Please include your mobile number so we can call you back.
We need to know if KU and Buddy and perhaps other ISPs are redirecting users by transparent proxy to http://w3.mict.go.th, as is TOT.
The fact that THREE ISPs are now blocking FACTsite indicates that the blocking order did, in fact, come from MICT and is not just an ISP decision.
This means that probably more ISPs will start to block FACTsite as the MICT ”request” is implemented by them. Some may be inefficient and not get around to blocking; others may simply ignore MICT’s “request”.
It is HIGHLY unlikely that MICT sought a court order to block FACTsite. Therefore, we have a good basis for a court case. FACT would like to become the second legal website in Thailand after Midnight University!
In any case, the first step is a letter of complaint to MICT and the three ISPs. We shall also get on the phone to all four on Monday.
Can some FACT readers please let us know if FACT’s RSS feed is still sending to subscribers?
Thanks for your help and support. FACT readers should use proxies and VPN till we get a new, mirrored website up. (This is the same way we’ll continue to post.)
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) has prepared a formal letter of complaint to send to Ranongruk Suwanachee, ICT minister, and the CEOs of the three ISPs:
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand
กลุ่มเสรีภาพต่อต้านการเซ็นเซอร์แห่งประเทศไทย
April 25, 2009
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
Formal Letter of Complaint Over Website Blocking
Cease and Desist Order
It has been brought to our attention that, on April 25, 2009, the WordPress blogsite of Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT)http://facthai.wordpress.com was inaccessible to subscribers of the Telephone Organisation of Thailand’s ADSL Internet service (2009.04.25 13:07; 2009.04.25 17:15; 2009.04.25 17:33; 2009.04.25 21:49), Kasetsart University (2009.04.25 14:32), and Buddy Broadband (2009.04.26 02:16). Our website was apparently accessible from many other ISPs in Thailand. Users of TOT ADSL, Kasetsart University, and Buddy Broadband attempting to access FACT’s website were redirected by transparent proxy to http://w3.mict.go.th, indicating that FACT’s website was blocked by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology.
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) is a non-political, non-partisan, public non-governmental organisation providing information on censorship issues in Thailand and worldwide. FACT is a network of more than 900 citizens concerned over censorship issues.
I am FACT’s coordinator and registered owner of FACT’s websitehttp://facthai.wordpress.com.
If the ICT ministry and/or TOT is blocking FACT’s websitehttp://facthai.wordpress.com, we require you to provide a copy of the court order authorising censorship of our website along with complete reasons for such censorship. If there is no such court order, the ICT ministry and/or TOT is actingillegally under the requirements of the Computer-Related Crimes Act 2007 and must immediately restore access to our website by all Internet users.
Should you fail to provide us with the relevant court orders and reasons for blocking FACT’s website, we will take legal action against you.
We expect your prompt reply and the removal of any block against FACT’s website.
Sincerely,
CJ Hinke
Box 31, Udomsuk Post Office
Bangkok 10261 Thailand
http://facthai.wordpress.com
telephone. +66-7-976-1880 email. [email protected]
Seems like we ran away from
Submitted by doctor J (not verified) on Mon, 27/04/2009 - 09:40.Seems like we ran away from an evil( who's keen to sue every offense ), just to face the greater evil ( who's so keen to put you behind the bars instead )
Crackdown in Siem Reap When
Submitted by John Francis Lee (not verified) on Tue, 28/04/2009 - 06:50.Crackdown in Siem Reap
When the farmers declined the governor's solution, the police and military were called in to enforce it, human rights investigators say. The video from the farmer shows a stand-off in which the farmers refuse to leave the land, despite the presence of about 100 police and soldiers. The shooting started at about 9.30am, according to farmers who later fled to Phnom Penh.
[Phra] Sovath Loun's videos and scores of photographs include the aftermath as well as extremely graphic footage and photos from the hospital, including close ups of gaping wounds and doctors trying to treat them, as well as bleeding farmers beaten unconscious and tied together in rows. His videos and photos provide an extremely rare and detailed look into what many have been warning for years is, among other things, a grave threat to stability in Cambodia: the government's alleged complicity in allowing, and in some cases assisting, those in positions of power to steal land from the poor.
This happens, in more genteel form, in Thailand everyday. But what will happen when the "elite" use "political reform" to make legal the sale of Thai land to foreigners? The "elite" in Thailand, driven mad by their greed, will act like the "elite" in Cambodia.
"There is no truth in [state-run] media," [Phra] Sovath Loun said, explaining his motivation for compiling and disseminating the videos. "Soldiers and police have guns for protecting people not shooting them," he added before beginning his evening meditation on April 12.
That is already the case in Thailand, so it is doubly important that an alternative to the state-run and "merely" state-sympathetic media stooges here in Thailand be strengthened.
Thanks to FACthai, PPT, and Prachatai for standing up to the plate. You are performing an invaluable service. Invaluable.