4 replies to this topic

[Hedda]

Here's another one of those "only in Thailand" developments:

"The Administrative Court warned a senior police officer yesterday that his comment suggesting the court should be blamed for the Santika Pub disaster is likely to be deemed contempt of court. Suchat Weroj, secretary-general of the Administrative Court's Office, issued the warning in a statement released yesterday.

He said the Central Administrative Court in March 2007 ruled in favour of the pub's operators in a case they filed against the local police for refusing to grant them a permit to operate an entertainment place. He said the court ruling was based on the legal facts that the owners were qualified to operate a nightclub and the venue's location was not prohibited by law.

The court ruled that the police's order refusing the entertainment place to be operated was against the law, according to Suchat. He said the police in April 2007 appealed with the Supreme Administrative Court and a verdict has yet to be made.

In his two-page statement, Suchat said the lower court focused on the police's delay in granting a permit of operation as the issue of possible violations of the building law by the pub operators was not mentioned in the testimonies given to the court. He said the court had nothing to do with the building-law violation, which was blamed for the high number of casualties. He said it was a matter for police and the city's civil engineering authorities.

"It is unlikely the Administrative Court will issue any order or verdict that goes against the law. To give news in a way that can lead to a perception that the Administrative Court is a cause for the disaster can be deemed contempt of court," Suchat said."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/01/04...al_30092358.php

[moe]

More than one club fire on New Year party night.




http://www.andrew-drummond.com/tag/rawhide/

[Bob]

"It is unlikely the Administrative Court will issue any order or verdict that goes against the law. To give news in a way that can lead to a perception that the Administrative Court is a cause for the disaster can be deemed contempt of court," Suchat said."

Unless and until there's a free and competent press in Thailand and/or the right to criticize all of "them" that make the rules, Thailand will remain a lost and fuedal place. Maybe Burma and Thailand aren't all that different.

[J.Bell]

I guess you could call it a form of "lese judgeste."

[Gene]

When you combine the new government's attempts to control the internet supposedly to "eliminate lese majeste," the courts' threats to jail for contempt anyone who criticizes the courts, the army's heavy hand in the new government and and the newspapers' seriously biased reports against the Thaksin supporters, it's easy to see how tightly controlled the press and information are going to become in Thailand.

Funny thing, I thought from reading some of the anti-Thaksin comments on this board that this kind of assault on free speech was what we were supposed to be afraid of ..... if Thaksin came back to power !