A PREDICTION ABOUT THE ECONOMIST
I'm almost certain this week's edition of The Economist will yet again face distribution problems in Thailand.
Given the events of this week that have seen three people arrested for allegedly disseminating "false" news reports that led to a fall in the Stock Exchange of Thailand, combined with the magazine's track record that has seen distribution of the print edition in Thailand disrupted six times in 2009 to date, you don't need to be a genius to see how a story in this week's edition is likely to cause the problems.
In the past the publishers have sometimes taken the decision to halt distribution of the magazine without the need for the two distribution companies responsible for subscriber and news trade copies inside Thailand having to make a decision. It wouldn't be a surprise to see that happen on this occasion too.
5 comments:
Surprisingly not.
The Economist is available in Thailand. You could have looked at this week's issue online and concluded that, although it had a report on the week's events in Thailand, it didn't touch any touchy subjects and probably wouldn't be withheld from distribution.
Well there you go. (I looked on Saturday and didn't see one, though).
Every single article that has caused the magazine to face disruption six times this year has seen the story in question remain available online.
I disagree with BKK though about there being no "touchy subjects". The one in brackets regarding rumours surroudning His Majesty is a big subject that I would have thought would have been enough.
If I were distributing or selling this magazine in this current climate which has seen people arrested for disseminating exactly that kind of information I'd be a little worried myself.
That's not saying I agree with it, merely having to live within the current laws and regulations in Thailand.
When I first checked it out online I thought, from the perspective of the current administration at least, this is least damaging compared with the other six articles already banned earlier so I was kind of questioning if BangkokBugle would be right.
In the end, I saw it on the newstand yesterday and also it arrived home earlier than usual too (saturday instead of sunday)...
Thanks. I've just updated with a new post about the availability.
Respectfully I will disagree with you about the content. I would have thought the few words in brackets about one-third of the way into the story would have been enough to cause problems. I believe this to be the first occasion where the d-word has been published, in connection to the rumours.
However seems that I am in a minority. That said it's good to see the magazine's distribution has not been disrupted again.
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