The Information and Communications Technology Ministry can sue YouTube to make the Google-owned video-sharing website withdraw inappropriate clips, just like Turkey did with a court injunction, webmasters said yesterday.

During a seminar to commemorate World Press Freedom Day, Paramate Minsiri, head of the Thai Webmaster Association, told ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, who was a guest speaker, that other countries such as Turkey had moved against provocative visual content.

A court ordered the jamming of YouTube's website due to an video clip which was deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

YouTube was forced to censor the offensive video clip in three days.

"Thailand may adopt Turkey's experience in dealing with YouTube," he said.

Paiboon Amonpinyokeat, an adviser to the association, said that as the violations could come from outside of the country, the government should consider how to enforce the law abroad.

Since March, the government has closed at least three websites, prompting international media organisations to downgrade Thailand's media freedom to the level of one of the world's worst.

Paiboon said the government should encourage webmasters to supervise each other, instead of enforcing the law. The government should also give a clear explanation as to why it had to shut down those websites.

Wanchat Padungrat, a founder of the popular Panthip website, said freedom of expression on the website was acceptable but the contributors should not use anonymous names to attack others.

Sitthichai said the crackdown on websites started with the previous government. Under then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 9,000 websites were blacked out at different times. Under this military-installed government, 16 websites were gagged, mostly because of obscenity and offensive messages.

Sitthichai said on Monday the government would launch its website www.sapazupzip.com to counter the proliferation of new websites created to attack the government. The new website will encourage people to express their opinions but the government has the right to delete any message found to be abusive.

To commemorate World Press Freedom Day, three media associations issued a joint statement calling on "all mainstream media professionals to accept and realise the importance of the birth and existence of the 'new media', which has drastically changed the culture of journalism from a one-way dimension to two-way or multiple-way interaction while posing a new challenge on how this new media won't disrupt peace or threaten national security".

The statement of the Confederation of Thai Journalists, Thai Journalists Association and Thai Broadcast Journalists also urged the government "to understand the changes and adopt a positive attitude towards the democratisation that the digital convergence has presented the world.

"Problems or threats associated with this 'freedom' must be dealt with an open mind and positive attitude. Most of all, the new media must be looked at as a great opportunity to educate people, open young people's world views and provide a forum for everyone to exchange viewpoints and useful information."