DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post

**opelayday** · 09-22-2012, 12:43 AM

Quote[/b] ]Do you all really need these porn sites?

Of course not, and it's ridiculous to suggest so. I also never feel the need for any type of anonymous proxy (the ones I cited were found by typing "free proxy server" into Google) , and to suggest that I'm writing this post because the censorship is interfering with my daily life is completely missing the point to be honest. If you read my post I said I never came across any banned sites during normal daily life, but just having come across the article I wanted to see what type of sites were banned. I could tell the majority were pornographic as one of police sites provides a breakdown by percentage of the types of sites banned, that's all, I never went to any myself.

As the general impression of Thailand is that it is a free speech society (with the exception of the Monarchy, which I fully respect and understand) , but some of the acitivites going on such as censoring poliitcal sites and those 'threating national security' are not that consistent with this.

I'm surprised at your attitute to be honest Stacker, as I thought most Americans were staunch defenders of free speech and the "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it" principle. Is this not the case for you ? Do you agree with the Chinese government's filtering of any sites critical to it too ? Would your attitude be the same if the US government blocked access to say, aljazeera.net, and similar sites ? I'd be interested in Seeker's take on this as I know he's strongly in favour of free speech from some of his posts before.

Quote[/b] ] I would have no problem living in Thailand either

Jeez, I never said I had any problems living in Thailand, I was just surprised by the issue as I'd only just discovered and wondered about other people's experiences. The fact that I myself don't acess censored materials or do anything that would cause trouble to the authorities doesn't mean I agree with the censorship as a principle.

Quote[/b] ]About 2,660 web sites have been blocked for "Threatening National Security". The question is, what are the guidelines for banning the web sites in this category? It wasn't that long ago that two journalists were kicked out of the country for saying the wrong thing.

I entirely agree, this seems to be the most troubling thing. Without knowing what that means, and with a few high profile victims, it forces everyone into self-censorship and freedom of speech is limited - to what extent, nobody really knows.

Quote[/b] ]BTW, we did a bit of censorship on your post.

Fair enough, perhaps this is too much a sensitive topic for those of us in Thialand to discuss here.

I'm half tempted just to delete this entire topic myself in case it causes problems for me and/or this board. If you want to do that Sawatdee then I wouldn't object.

09-22-2012, 12:43 AM	#7
opelayday Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 537 Senior Member	Quote[/b] ]Do you all really need these porn sites? Of course not, and it's ridiculous to suggest so. I also never feel the need for any type of anonymous proxy (the ones I cited were found by typing "free proxy server" into Google) , and to suggest that I'm writing this post because the censorship is interfering with my daily life is completely missing the point to be honest. If you read my post I said I never came across any banned sites during normal daily life, but just having come across the article I wanted to see what type of sites were banned. I could tell the majority were pornographic as one of police sites provides a breakdown by percentage of the types of sites banned, that's all, I never went to any myself. As the general impression of Thailand is that it is a free speech society (with the exception of the Monarchy, which I fully respect and understand) , but some of the acitivites going on such as censoring poliitcal sites and those 'threating national security' are not that consistent with this. I'm surprised at your attitute to be honest Stacker, as I thought most Americans were staunch defenders of free speech and the "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it" principle. Is this not the case for you ? Do you agree with the Chinese government's filtering of any sites critical to it too ? Would your attitude be the same if the US government blocked access to say, aljazeera.net, and similar sites ? I'd be interested in Seeker's take on this as I know he's strongly in favour of free speech from some of his posts before. Quote[/b] ] I would have no problem living in Thailand either Jeez, I never said I had any problems living in Thailand, I was just surprised by the issue as I'd only just discovered and wondered about other people's experiences. The fact that I myself don't acess censored materials or do anything that would cause trouble to the authorities doesn't mean I agree with the censorship as a principle. Quote[/b] ]About 2,660 web sites have been blocked for "Threatening National Security". The question is, what are the guidelines for banning the web sites in this category? It wasn't that long ago that two journalists were kicked out of the country for saying the wrong thing. I entirely agree, this seems to be the most troubling thing. Without knowing what that means, and with a few high profile victims, it forces everyone into self-censorship and freedom of speech is limited - to what extent, nobody really knows. Quote[/b] ]BTW, we did a bit of censorship on your post. Fair enough, perhaps this is too much a sensitive topic for those of us in Thialand to discuss here. I'm half tempted just to delete this entire topic myself in case it causes problems for me and/or this board. If you want to do that Sawatdee then I wouldn't object.
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