THE ECONOMIST: A BAN BY ANY OTHER NAME

The situation regarding the distribution of The Economist this week is not much clearer this morning.
In an emailed response from the distribution center in Singapore, Jasmine Tan told me: "As we have have certain restrictions and limitations sending copies of the current issue to Thailand, we will not be able to send you this particular issue. You may however wish to purchase this via our website."She declined to elaborate on the exact details of the restrictions.
The AFP news agency has a story here that draws the same conclusions as my post yesterday; the distribution company took the decision not to handle this edition. Asia Books is in the same group as Boookazine and Distri-Thai, the distribution company that handles overseas imported publications in Thailand. The story also mentions Police talks about the publication.
That story has also been reproduced here by The Bangkok Post, and this is the first time I've seen a mention of it in any Thai media.
The Guardian has more, and a quote from The Economist gives the impression it was their decision not to distribute. "We decided not to distribute The Economist in Thailand last week out of consideration for our local distributor, who would otherwise have risked breaching Thai laws," the spokeswoman said. Who made the decision. From what I know and from talking to those responsible it seems it was the distributor made the decision once the copies arrived in Thailand late last week.
So, the Royal Thai Police, the distribution company and The Economist themselves would all seem to be involved in some way to have prevented sales of this particular edition.
As there is no ban it would appear that purchasing copies from overseas and sending/bringing them to Thailand is fine. If you want a print copy of this edition let me know by the end of Wednesday and I will see what I can do. No promises !

BREAKING NEWS: As I am writing this at 6.06am 'The Economist has been banned in Thailand' story has just run on BBC World News television. That was about it; no time from them to get into the facts that there's actually no formal Government or Police banning order.