RSF urges ASEAN to defend press freedoms
RSF urges ASEAN to defend press freedoms
Agencies, Bangkok
Reporters without Borders called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat on Friday to act against "censorship and intimidation" of the press in its member countries.
The international press watchdog said it was concerned over measures taken by the Thai and Malaysian governments recently against a number of foreign news magazines.
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres - RSF) urged ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo Severino to intervene against "the increase in censorship and intimidation against foreign publications".
"The integration and economic development in Southeast Asia that your organization defends also depends on the free circulation of information," RSF boss Robert Menard said in a letter to Severino.
Thailand's government has threatened to expel two Bangkok- based journalists with the Far Eastern Economic Review over a Jan. 10 article which touched on the government's relations with the monarchy.
U.S. citizen Shawn Crispin and Briton Rodney Tasker were named on an immigration blacklist a week ago, and their passports have been confiscated. They are now awaiting the results of an appeal.
The government has faced a storm of criticism against the move, but Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said he is determined to expel the pair, who are accused of posing a threat to national security.
He also lashed out at criticism from the United States which had publicly expressed concern over the deportation threats.
In Malaysia, the government has admitted blocking the distribution of several news magazines because it is upset about their coverage of issues including Islam and terrorism.
The magazines -- Newsweek, Time and the Far Eastern Economic Review -- were withheld for "inaccurate and untrue reporting of the situation in Malaysia," Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung said.
Chor said another magazine, The Economist, was "under review" for articles about action taken against foreign workers.
ASEAN member nations include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Despite its history of military coups, Thailand has been regarded a beacon of democracy in the region, surrounded by the autocracies and military dictatorships of its neighbors.
On Thursday, influential U.S. newspaper The Washington Post published an editorial which warned that expelling the Review reporters "would ruin Thailand's reputation as a haven for free speech in Asia."
The Washington Post said the case against the two journalists made little sense and no inaccuracies had been cited in the offending Jan. 10 article, printed in an edition which was banned here.
The article, headlined A Right Royal Headache, referred to King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday speech in December in which he sharply criticized the prime minister and said Thailand was in "crisis".
On Friday, the Thai government was accused of harassing a polling organization which released a survey showing flagging support for Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The British-based Economist magazine also ran into trouble with the Thai authorities, and was forced to withhold distribution of its March 2 edition pending a police review of a special 14-page report on Thailand.