[ad_1]
BANGKOK (AP) – Thai authorities worked Monday to stop a growing wave of protests calling for the prime minister’s resignation by threatening to censor news coverage, raiding an editorial and attempting to block the Telegram messaging app used by protesters.
Efforts by the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to drain support and organizing capacity for student-led protests come as demonstrations have grown in the capital and spread across the country, despite a The emergency decree, which bans public gatherings of more than four people in Bangkok, the news of the outlaws is said to affect national security and give the authorities broad power to detain people.
Thousands of protesters, mostly young people, rallied north of Bangkok on Monday night, as they have done at various locations in the capital over the past six days to push forward their demands, including a controversial call for reform of the monarchy. As night fell, they raised their cell phones, illuminating the crowd.
Protesters accuse Prayuth, an army commander who led a coup in 2014, was unfairly returned to power in last year’s general election because laws had been changed to favor a pro-military party. Protesters say a constitution written and passed under military rule is undemocratic.
But his most recent demand for checks and balances on the monarchy has deeply angered conservative Thais and broken a taboo as the monarchy is considered sacrosanct and strict laws protecting it from insults keep its role from being openly discussed. The risk of confrontation has also increased in a country where calls for political change have a history of being greeted with military intervention or even violence.
Authorities are now increasingly turning to censorship to try to suppress protests after protesters disrupted an actual caravan last week in a scene that was once unthinkable.
With the protesters gathering again Monday night, a senior official with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission confirmed reports that the agency had been ordered to block access to the Telegram messaging app. Suthisak Tantayothin said it was talking to Internet service providers to do so, but until now, the encrypted messaging app preferred by many protesters around the world was still available in the country.
Police also searched the office of a publishing house that handles books by Thai and foreign scholars with sometimes controversial perspectives. The Same Sky publishing house said police took copies of three titles that had been sold at a recent book fair in a package called Monarchy Studies, and asked its publisher to come and question him at his station.
Deputy Police Spokesperson Kissana Phataracharoen also confirmed an order signed by the chief of police that could allow officials to block access to news sites that provide what he called “distorted information.”
Under current laws, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission and the Ministry of the Economy and Digital Society are empowered to prohibit transmissions and block Internet content. The police themselves can also do so under the emergency decree, which entered into force on October 15.
Kissana spoke after a leaked copy of the censorship request circulated on social media. The order calls for blocking access to the Voice TV, The Reporters, The Standard, Prachatai and Free Youth online sites, and removing their existing content. It also proposes a ban on digital over-the-air broadcasts of Voice TV.
All the media have been broadcasting the protests live. Voice TV and Prachatai openly sympathize with the protest movement, and Free Youth is a student protest organization. As of Monday, none had been blocked. However, at least one local cable TV provider has been censoring international news broadcasts during its segments on the Thai protests.
The Thai Foreign Correspondents Club said it was “deeply concerned” by the threat of censorship, adding that it “makes the government appear clumsy and indifferent to criticism, and could further arouse public anger.”
“Bona fide journalists should be able to report on important events without the threat of bans, suspensions, censorship or prosecution over them,” the club said in a statement.
Despite the spread of the protests outside the capital, Prayuth, the prime minister, told reporters that the state of emergency will remain only in Bangkok for now.
In addition to the emergency decree declaring the protests illegal, the authorities have also tried in vain to prevent people from gathering by selectively closing stations on Bangkok’s public transport lines. He also warned that he will take legal action against those promoting the protests on social media, including taking photos there or posting them on social media apps.
Despite that, hashtags related to the protests are still the most used on Twitter.
One of the many student groups involved in organizing the protests, Free Youth, recently said that their Facebook account could be blocked soon and asked people to register on Telegram. In about a day, he had 200,000 subscribers on the app.
Prayuth said on Monday that the government is open to an extraordinary session of Parliament to seek a solution to the current situation. It was unclear when it would take place.
