The court will decide on October 28 whether it will order protection for the Midnight University website (www.midnightuniv.org), an alternative academic forum based in Chiang Mai.

Surachai Nilsaeng, an ICT Ministry official, justified the swift action against the website as a necessity.

"The blocking of the website [was to protect] the Council of Democratic Reform," Surachai told the court, referring to the military junta by the name under which it seized power from Thaksin Shinawatra on the night of September 19.

On September 28, one day before the site was blocked, academics affiliated with "Midnight University" tore up mock copies of the interim constitution issued by the junta and reported this on the website.

"We cannot allow four or five people to have a closed-door meeting to draft the [interim] constitution to govern 60 million people for one year," Somkiat Tangnamo, the webmaster and a lecturer at Chiang Mai University, was quoted as saying on the website just hours before it was blocked.

Somkiat is still seeking court protection of the website's right to press freedom though ICT officials yesterday told the court that they had mostly unblocked the site since the junta itself had approved its content as acceptable. Some Internet service providers (ISPs) have apparently not unblocked the site, however.

Somkiat decried the way in which Surachai got the site blocked by simply calling up the ISP without presenting any proof of his identity. What's more, he told the court, no mention was made of which particular part of the website's content was deemed inappropriate.

"This is a kind of violation of the law," he told the presiding judge, adding that no ICT official should be able to act with impunity through a phone call without proper orders.

Somkiat later told The Nation that he was keen to launch another lawsuit to question the legitimacy of the junta's censorship order but would have to consult other members of the forum first.

Wannachai Wongtala, president of the company that hosts midnightuniv.org, told the Administrative Court that 30 other commercial sites had been affected for 18 hours. He is launching a related lawsuit to demand compensation from the ICT Ministry.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation