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As the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand billed him at its meet-and-greet last week, Sittichai Pokaiyaudom is "The Man Who Banned YouTube".

The minister in charge of ICT (Irreverent Coverage of Thailand) once complained about being the least-recognised member of the Cabinet, but of course that's all changed now. He is world-famous for stopping popular video-sharing website YouTube from beaming its amateur movies into Thailand.

He's so famous, in fact, that people were willing to pay the foreign correspondents Bt300 to get a crack at him.

The entire population of the blogosphere seems to know everything it wants to know about Sittichai already. Some bloggers have branded him "incompetent", "racist" and "sexist".

These appraisals were not echoed at the Correspondents Club, it must be noted. But one blogger went home and complained that Sittichai offered nothing but "joke after joke when he was asked to give the audience a little bit of background ... All he talked about was having wine with girls [and] going golfing with dumb Singaporean officials."

A blogger called Matt said that wasn't accurate. "I'm listening to the audio here and I think that you've been unfair. You asked a rhetorical question and he freely admitted that he wasn't right for the job. He

apologised to you for his remark. And yet you've stooped to the same level, without apology, that you slated him for."

Yet another blogger's recollection: "The evening started to get weird when he was rambling about himself, his education,

where he lost his virginity, how he met his wife, how he hated to ban porn websites

that actually might boost his sex life, which he said didn't exist."

And now for a comment on that last blog: "He was using 1950s-style sexist and racist humour to avoid actually answering some questions - but other things you've written are out of context, especially when you write that he admits his incompetence and lack of knowledge about the Internet. That's not what he said, nor in context with what he was saying."

Soopsip has tried to get to the bottom of this with an exhaustive survey of those in attendance, and "she" says the majority at Sittichai's talk thought he came off okay.

"He doesn't deserve to be called sexist," the person we polled said. "He may not have acted like a statesman, but he shouldn't have been called a sexist."

Another online observer: "He looked like any old man. Kind-looking even ... Little did I know that when he opened his mouth all hell would be let loose."

All we can say is, it's a good thing the information and communications minister doesn't look at the Internet (apart from checking Tiger Woods' golf scores, of course).