Satit says Govt needs to block DTV on Thai Com

It claimed the government ordered Thai Com to stop its broadcast following the government's announcement on the state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding provinces.

Prime Minister Office's Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey says on Sunday that the government found it necessary to stop D TV station from broadcasting.

He cited that the riot at the Interior Ministry and the Red Shirts'attack at Pattaya were the reasons that the government decided to try to stop the broadcast.

However, at 5pm on Sunday the station is still on air. Observers said DTV is broadcast on NSS6, which is not based in Thailand so they wonder how the government would be able to block the signal.

"We had never wanted to force the closure of DTV during the past as the government had said the red shirts have the right to operate their own TV channel but (the prohibition of broadcast) is inevitable now that the station is obviously used to propagate and lure the red shirts to engage in unlawful actions and therefore, we have to take the action."

DTV (Democracy TV) inaugurated in Janauray, 2009 as the mouthpiece station of the red shirts or United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD).