Another 'Internet crackdown'

[troopie]

Why does the very elastic term 'inappropriate' worry me?
Internet crackdown

BANGKOK: -- The government will launch a crackdown on pornographic material, offensive cartoons and Internet websites that contain inappropriate material, the government spokesman said yesterday.

Surapong Suebwonglee said more than five million websites from around the world feature rape in their content, causing widespread alarm among relevant authorities.

“There are also games about rape,” he said after he raised his concerns at the Cabinet meeting yesterday.

He said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is now planning to supervise the crackdown on pornography and has already demanded to see clear results from relevant authorities by December.

Surapong said the crackdown would target pornographic material, cartoons and websites. He believed technological systems must be in place to block pornographic websites operated overseas, while relevant officials would nail down and arrest operators of the offending sites in Thailand.

“With sincere effort from all relevant parties, the severity of the problem should dramatically drop,” he said.

--The Nation 2005-10-19

[buksida]

Yep those cartoons are a killer, thousands of fatalities per year they cause.

Nice to see the government has its priorities right

[lomuamart]

You beat me to it, troopie. Just read the article myself.
The censorship has been going on for some time and I'm sure most of us would agree that some of the content on the net goes overboard.
However, the term "inappropriate" could well be tranlated to mean almost anything - even this site.
At least it's not as bad as in China where the policy seems to be to close the whole internet, other than a few sites that they allow.

[troopie]

Couldn't agree more. I always worry when any law, anywhere, uses such a catch-all phrase as 'inappropriate'. It's like Bishop Walburton once explained: "orthodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is another man's doxy." A bit like the old army charge of 'Conduct unbecoming', which meant anything from peeing on the colonel's lawn to getting caught with the regimental mascot in your bunk!
With the way things are at the Bangkok 'Number 10', we'd all better make sure our doxy is (at least outwardly) the same as you-know-who's!