A military junta and self-censorship in Thailand are a toxic mix for press freedoms, as The New York Times has learned again.
For the second time in 10 weeks, a local printer has removed a story deemed critical of the nation from The International New York Times. It meant a large white space on the front page and the jump page, even if the net effect was problematic.
“Self-censorship is on the rise in the south-east Asian country which is ruled by a military junta. In September, the same paper’s printer stopped its publication over an article on the country’s ailing king,” reported The Guardian. That meant the entire paper was not published.
The latest censorship involves one story in an edition the printer did print. It carried the headline, “Thai economy and spirits are sagging.” It noted that Thai households carry heavy financial debts and that a variety of crimes are up sharply. It even quoted a fruit and vegetable seller with what appeared to be some amateur psychoanalysis, or at least facial analyst, declaring, “No one feels like smiling anymore.”
The blank space did not mean readers were totally in the dark about what was up since it also carried the line, “The article in this space was removed by our printer in Thailand. The International New York Times and its editorial staff had no role in its removal.”
Perhaps more relevant, the same article was available online in Thailand, so the impact of the censorship was ambiguous.
It is more than likely that the altered edition will be somewhat of a collector’s item since the paper “said last month it would stop its operations in Thailand at the end of the year due to rising costs.”
