(SEAPA/IFEX) – The Thai government has ordered a ban on the circulation of video compact discs (VCDs) showing the military’s violent and controversial handling of protests on 25 October 2004 in the predominantly Muslim district of Takbai. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on 11 December that the government would take legal action against those who […]
(SEAPA/IFEX) – The Thai government has ordered a ban on the circulation of video compact discs (VCDs) showing the military’s violent and controversial handling of protests on 25 October 2004 in the predominantly Muslim district of Takbai.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on 11 December that the government would take legal action against those who defy the ban. Thaksin expressed concern that the VCDs could aggravate the violence in Thailand’s troubled south.
The digital video has been shown widely at various public discussions in the aftermath of the Takbai protest. No less than 85 people were killed on the day of the protest when soldiers confronted the protesters. Many died from bullet wounds, but most of those killed were believed to have suffocated in the backs of cramped trucks in which they were herded and transported.
The military and the government deny any wrongdoing, but footage in the newly banned VCDs reportedly suggest otherwise. Opposition parties have been using the footage to discredit the government in the run up to the Thai general elections scheduled for 6 February 2005.
Local human rights organisations are decrying the VCD ban, saying Thaksin’s order runs counter to the people’s right to information and contradicts the government’s promise to provide an independent investigation into the killings.
SEAPA noted that the government and military have consistently been trying to control news and information surrounding the Takbai incident ever since it lay the government vulnerable to criticism (see IFEX alerts of 2 December and 9 November 2004). Thai papers have complained of journalists being harassed over photographs and footages exposing military misconduct in the incident. Recently, a Malaysian news crew also claimed to have been harassed by soldiers over interviews they conducted in Thailand’s southern provinces.
SEAPA challenged the Thaksin government to “allow journalists to do their job” in the troubled provinces, and to prove its commitment to transparency by not trying to control the flow of information in, out, and within the region.
