Former Thai Senator Jon Ungphakorn published an op-ed today in AsiaMedia on the measures that Thailand has taken against free speech.

Since the military coup of Sept 19, 2006, Thailand has almost caught up with China as a world leader in the field of internet censorship and control, particularly with regard to freedom of political expression. This is a completely unacceptable environment for the promised return to democracy at the end of this year.

On the day after the coup, the Council for Democratic Reform that took over the country ordered the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) to “control, intercept, suppress and eliminate the distribution over all information networks of articles, text, speech and other forms of communication that might adversely affect administrative reform of the democratic system under the constitutional monarchy”.

This order has never been rescinded.

According to Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT), by May 28 of this year, the MICT was blocking access by the Thai public to a total of 11,329 websites.

He goes on to talk about the implications of the Computer Crime Act, passed in July, under which Thai blogger Phraya Pichai was arrested in August.

Article 14 of this act makes it a crime punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment and a maximum fine of 100,000 baht for anyone to import into a computer system, or to forward or propagate:

1) False information or forged data likely to cause damage to others, or to the general public;

2) False information likely to damage national security or cause undue public alarm;

3) Any information contravening national security or anti-terrorism laws;

4) Obscene materials which are publicly accessible.

Internet service operators who knowingly allow such crimes to take place on computer systems under their control are also liable to the same punishment.

Such vaguely defined and all-encompassing grounds for criminal charges will surely encourage discriminatory use of the law by those in power to punish political opponents and dissidents.

Website hosts will obviously be reluctant to allow controversial political views on any websites connected to them.

He mentions two arrests, though he does not indicate who the second arrestee was.

Shockingly, neither case attracted the attention of the mainstream media. It was mainly on internet sites and in email circles that the news of their arrests became known.

The fact is that in Thailand today, political expression on the internet is more subject to censorship and control, and carries a greater risk of criminal penalties than similar expression on mainstream media such as the printed press.

Read the full essay here.