Web boards invoke wrath of politicians

Freedom of expression maybe a fundamental human right but the abuse of freedom, especially on the Internet can lead to this freedom becoming like a wall in a public toilet - and a political tool.

Politicians want the space for free speech to be closed, to silence negative comments about the country's sacred institutions. The webmasters have hit back, criticising the politicians for not understanding what that freedom means. Another interesting angle can be found in an academic research on "The Trace of Writing in Public Toilets and Web boards in Cyberspace".

In the name of freedom, users of Web boards have built their private sphere in a public space that blurs the borderline between the two spaces, said Sirirat Rattanakan in her Master of Arts thesis (Media Arts and Design) at Chiang Mai University.

Sirirat looked into the behaviour of posting messages on five websites - and five public toilets.

While many Internet users took the public Web boards as their private sphere in attacking people even under some of the cyber community rules, users of public toilets used more abusive words as they could express themselves with unlimited freedom in the toilet, Sirirat said.

Cyberspace today plays a vital role in promoting freedom of expression and has also raised the controversial debate over its abuse of freedom. In many cases, cyberspace has become a target of political attack.

Democrat assistant-secretary general MP Thepthai Senpong last week demanded the Information and Communication Technology Ministry (ICT) close down or intervene with 29 websites.

The MP claimed he had found content on these websites deemed harmful to the monarchy.

The webmaster argued that the MP did not understand what freedom of expression is.

"Freedom of expression is an important foundation of democratic society. It is not only to protect individual rights but also to provide food for thought for society through it free debates," said Assoc Professor Somkiat Tangnamo, who is rector and webmaster of the Midnight University, which is on the MP's list to be banned.

The www.midnightuniv.org now mainly focuses on providing content for public knowledge with over 20,000 downloaded articles and essays. Its Web board had become inactive long before the politician put it on his list, as the webmaster decided not to open the space for discussion.

However, there was never anything about the monarchy as the politician had alleged, Somkiat said, adding that as webmaster he welcomed all postings as long as they did not violate the rights of others.

"We were never bothered with people exercising their freedom of expression on our Web boards. We closed it because we were concerned that some people were trying to abuse the public space for personal interest with ill intentions," he said.

Somkiat admitted that many people had visited the Web board simply to attack others.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, executive director and webmaster of Prachatai online newspaper, said she saw the problem but did not want to play the role of mastermind in managing the website and Web board. Prachatai.com is also on the list the politician wants the ICT to censor.

Started in 2004, Prachatai announced the Web would provide reliable and relevant news and information to the public during an era of serious curbs on the freedom and independence of news media.

Like many other websites, Prachatai became a battleground between political factions after the coup in 2006. Many users continue to attack their enemies on the Web board.

While trying to be open as much as possible for freedom of expression, Chiranuch said Prachatai was very concerned about the abuse of freedom with so many personal attacks.

She also admitted it was very difficult to judge if certain comments should be deleted because while some people used abusive language, other attacks were even more damaging without using rude words at all.

Prachatai would like to see its Web board to be a learning community and did not want the state's intervention. "We actually do not want to censor anyone because we are not judges. We want to see the community's members themselves, not the state, help clean up and prevent the space from such violations."