THE YOUTUBE DEBATE
The Bangkok Bugle was one of the first sites to bring you news of the Thai Government's blocking of the video sharing website Youtube after one user reportedly uploaded a video that was highly insulting and critical to His Majesty The King.
That news has now spread around the world with headlines such as 'Thailand blocks access to YouTube'. I knew this would happen from the moment I heard, and I also realised the damage it would likely do to Thailand's already tarnished global reputation. It's also got far more coverage than it ever deserved, and people around the world will not be looking at a video that they would not otherwise have even found.
Having said that I am very supportive of what the Thai Government has done.
It's reported they asked YouTube to remove the offending video, and this request was refused. In the past I have seen far less insulting and inflammatory videos removed, and I simply cannot understand why YouTube didn't comply with this request. I agree that blocking the whole site appears an overkill, but they've certainly made their point.
The fact is that some things in Thailand are taboo, and insulting the Royal Family is one of them. I'm sure that is the CEO of Google, owners of Youtube, even came to Thailand whilst the video was still online he would face the possibility of charges of lese majeste - as I spoke about recently. This is exactly the same scenario to that where a Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in jail for vandalising a picture of His Majesty.
The problem is there are no global rules governing global media and websites. Laws and what is considered acceptable changes from country to country. There's no easy answer to that problem, which is why Thailand is perfectly within its rights to block anything that would breach its own laws.
1 comments:
I'm surprised that you have seen this kind of blocking problem in Thailand as an acceptable solution.
Most media in Thailand have been trying to present that world would resist blocking the freedom to know in Thailand and that would affect to Thai economy and reputation.
Well, I think it depends and this case I really agree with ICT's solution. Freedom to know is not the last answer because there are something more important than that and I believe most of thai people would not even care about reputation or economy rather than King.
I can't imagine what would happen if Thai government let Royal family especially His Majesty The King be insulted by anyone no matter they are thai or foreigner. And I have no idea why most media try so hard to expose everything even something are not benefit to anyone even a bit.
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