Thailand blocks access to website after royal insult

dpa German Press Agency Published: Wednesday April 4, 2007

Bangkok- Thailand's military installed government on
Wednesday blocked a popular website that has been featuring a mocking
video on the country's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Efforts to access to the YouTube website were diverted to a
Ministry of Information website instead.

The blockage followed Information and Communications Technology
Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom's order to shut down any websites
deemed to be violating the orders issued by the leaders of the
September 19 coup d'etat that ousted former prime minister Thaksin
Shinawatra.

Sitthichai said the ministry had the authority to block any
websites considered to have committed lese majeste or seen as a
threat to national security.

A video clip was posted on the YouTube website late last month
that mocked King Bhumibol, Thailand's king for the past 60 years, who
will turn 80 this year.

Lese majeste is a crime in Thailand, punishable by imprisonment.
Last month a provincial court sentenced a Swedish national to ten
years in jail for defacing portraits of the king.

Thailand has been under the joint rule of a junta and its
appointed government since October, 2006. The interim government has
promised to step aside after a general election promised in December,
this year.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency

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