The government's Internet censorship road is a slippery one and people should not leave officials to do what they want, as they may belatedly discover them trying to "censor everything we want to talk about," warned executive director of Southeast Asian Press Alliance (Seapa) Roby Alampay.
"I would not leave the question of censorship to government," he said, adding the Thai government has been using the law to "intimidate" those engaging in sensitive political discussion - especially on the issue of the monarchy institution. People are being made to recognise that visiting some websites or chatrooms is "at [their] own risk."
The Internet is where "the government sets the limits on what people can talk about," argued Alampay. But the shutting down of some websites might lead to the radicalisation of political posters. Some may simply give up, but others will be forced to migrate elsewhere online or further underground.
A clear example is the decision by non-profit prachatai.com on-line newspaper to close its political web board by the end of this month, after its board manager Chiranuch Premchaiporn was charged under computer crime law for allegedly allowing 10 different postings of material deemed as lese majeste. She faces a potential 50 year maximum prison term as a result.
An individual who posted a message was also charged and Chiranuch, who spoke at the symposium yesterday, said the decision to shut down the web board came after staff at prachatai.com concluded they could not protect posters any more.
"Since we can't pass on the responsibility to anyone else we decided to shut it down because we do not want to pretend freedom of expression exists now. So we decided to announce there is no freedom of expression on such a forum," Chiranuch told the gathering.
She warned however more secretive and underground splinter web boards could result and "may not be good for democracy."
The Computer Crime Act is the single most controversial piece of legislation affecting freedom of expression since its enforcement in July 2007, wrote Sinfah Tunsawawuth and Toby Mendel in a paper analysing the law. It was presented by Sinfah, an independent media lawyer.
The paper stated that lese majeste has been "the single offence most frequently applied by the Thai authorities against Internet users and ISPs under the Computer Crime Act". Sinfah acknowledged yesterday however that the current emergency decree imposed by the government in Bangkok and 15 other provinces for the past three months had led to censorship that makes the computer crime law pale by comparison.
"They don't need a computer crime act now," Sinfah said.
Independent academic Sarinee Achawanantakul said Thai society should weigh the cost of growing censorship which she believes carries a high cost to society.
"In the case of prachatai.com, the situation won't be helpful [to society]... If [the government] says they do not want political division they should ask how censorship will really help. Will it in fact lead to making more people angry and hateful?"
The symposium was organised by Seapa, Netizen Group and the Campaign for Popular Media Reform and supported by the Heinrich Boll Foundation and the Media Legal Defense Initiative.