SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP

An alcohol advertising ban on television has been in place in Thailand for a while now, and it applies to home-grown programmes as well as those beamed in from overseas. I've been amused over this past weekend to see the almost comical way in which the person in control of the 'censor' button operates.
Take ESPN's coverage of the English FA Cup. It is sponsored by Panasonic and XXX beer. What normally happens is that during the brief ad for XXX beer an 'intermission' screen will appear. At prime times this happens 100 per cent of the time but for the late matches - and especially the Luton versus Liverpool game last night - I think the censor had fallen asleep as all the ads appeared as normal. That also happens with the re-runs during the very early morning.
I have visions of a guy in a small, dark room sitting in front of a screen, finger poised on the button waiting for the beer adverts. I don't think that image is going to be too far from the truth.