Distribution of this week's The Economist has returned to normal after last week's decision by its distributor here not to handle that edition due to coverage of Thailand's lese majeste laws.
Along with their copy of this week's edition, subscribers have received a letter in which The Economist says: "We are extremely disappointed with the service you have experienced. We are working with our distributor to improve matters .."
I doubt the publisher is likely to find any distributor that will handle such controversial content. They've used at least four distribution companies in the past 12 months alone, and have seen six issues - four this year - not distributed in the Kingdom.
But I do wonder what might have happened if last week's issue had been distributed, especially given the online version of the 'problem' story is freely accessible.
I'm glad to hear that they are concerned about the situation. Honestly, I don't think the latest article is lese majeste (IMHO), it just summarises pending cases.
ReplyDeleteEven the most provocative article (last December) has been excerpted in a new Thai book by Sulak.
Mat.