Anxiety heightened yesterday as red-shirt protesters at the Rajprasong intersection continued to anticipate an imminent military crackdown.
Most of the protesters appear to be relying more on informal news and hearsay because they seem to have lost trust in most of the mainstream media, which they believe is pro-groverment.
"There is truth as well as false information," red-shirt leader Jaran Dittapichai reminded the crowds earlier this week, referring to news reports about death squads and a military crackdown.
"You will go mad if you believe everything. We must take things with a grain of salt and not believe all the reports. But do not disregard everything you hear either because we must be cautious. However, to believe everything you hear [about the imminent military crackdown] will just make you go nuts."
Noi, an educated Bangkok-based red-shirt source for The Nation, has been making frantic phone calls in the early hours for the past two weeks, informing friends about an "imminent" crackdown or troop mobilisation.
Text messages, Twitter, some newspapers and a handful of community radio stations and websites appear to be the only means of communication nowadays. Distrust in the mainstream media has deepened as the red shirts continue to struggle to make sense of what is happening. Several red-shirt media outlets have been shut down under the Emergency Decree.
Many of the protesters agree that that they are facing a propaganda and psychological warfare disseminated by the state but none of this writer's red-shirt sources appear to be worried. They all seem to be determined to rely upon their own network of news and the educated red shirts have been avidly following foreign reports, analysis and editorials as sources. Red-shirt leaders often read out translated commentaries and editorials from foreign newspapers and news agencies on stage.
Noi, who often camps out at Rajprasong intersection, said there were many cyber-warriors helping to win the "information war" abroad. She claimed that she had heard more "news" as of yesterday evening about an imminent crackdown in the hours to come, but added that she and her fellow protesters had crossed the threshold of fear and would not retreat.
Yesterday afternoon, in a red-shirt radio FM106.80 broadcast from Rajprasong intersection, red-shirt callers were warned to not believe in the mainstream media reports about the confrontation in the Don Muang area.
"Don't believe their news," the radio host kept saying, urging the red shirts to wait for announcements made by the leaders.