2 Aug 2011 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a Thai political activist and former editor-in-chief of the Voice of Taksin and Red Power partisan news magazines, was last week charged with two offences of lese majeste for two separate articles deemed critical of the royal family published in his now-defunct Voice of Taksin magazine. Lese majeste charges in Thailand carry up to 15-year jail terms and have been utilised for political purposes during the country’s protracted political conflict. If found guilty of both charges, Somyot, who has first arrested on 30April and held without bail in a Bangkok detention centre for 84 days (the maximum period allowed under Thai law), will face a possible 30 years in prison.
29 Jul 2011 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
The potent reaction from both Chinese netizens and mainstream media in response to Sunday’s deadly train crash in Wenzhou has shown how the state’s propaganda machine is being increasingly challenged. The majority of Chinese media (including state-owned organs) this week ignored directives issued by the Central Propaganda Ministry not to report on the causes of the crash. Meanwhile, netizens’ use of social media, both to chronicle the disaster and to express their fury at the government’s handling of the situation, has led outspoken paper Southern Metropolis Daily to claim “no one, not even someone with the lowest IQ, would choose to challenge the public at this particular point in time.”
29 Jul 2011 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Guinea’s state-controlled media regulatory agency this week imposed a “temporary” ban on media coverage of the 19 July attack on the private residence of President Alpha Condé, silencing private radio and television debate programmes in which questions were being raised over the event.
Radio France Internationale (RFI), a popular international radio station in French-speaking Africa that had originally planned to debate the attack during one of its daily news call-in programmes, has felt the pressure of the ban. Its deputy director told the Committee to Protect Journalists: “We are not submitting to a censorship measure; we regret it and we hope that it will be temporary.” In the past, RFI has had its broadcasts temporarily banned and reporters expelled in several sub-Saharan African countries, though it continues to assert its editorial independence.
28 Jul 2011 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
The controversial ‘A Serbian Film’ has been banned from being screened at the RioFan film festival by the event’s main sponsor, Brazilian national bank Caixa Econômica Federal. A statement on the festival’s website says organisers were given no further information behind the decision to veto the film’s screening. Meanwhile, a statement from a spokesman of the bank’s board claims “not every creative product fits in an unrestrained way in any medium or place.” RioFan responded by saying it opposes all forms of censorship.
‘A Serbian Film’ has raised controversy for its depictions of pornography and violence. It was cut from London’s FrightFest film festival last year, while in May the director of Spain’s Sitges film festival, Angel Sala, was charged with the exhibition of child pornography in connection with an adults-only screening of the film.
