Thai authorities shut down protesters' TV station
From www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asia...view/1048733/1/.html
BANGKOK : Thailand's government pulled the plug Thursday on the television channel of "Red Shirt" protesters who have occupied Bangkok's commercial heartland, defying a state of emergency in the capital.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is under increasing pressure to end the mass anti-government rallies, which have disrupted traffic and caused major shopping centres to close.
Abhisit cancelled his attendance at a Southeast Asian summit in Hanoi, where fellow premiers expressed concern about Thailand's deep political rift, which pits Bangkok's ruling elite against the mainly poor and rural Reds.
Leaders of the tens of thousands of supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra have warned they are ready for "war" but the authorities have avoided using force to break up the demonstrations.
Instead the government set its sights on media loyal to the red-clad movement, shutting down its satellite TV channel providing rolling coverage of the rallies, and vowing to clamp down on pro-Red radio stations.
It accused the Reds' TV of distorting information and inciting unrest, warning that the next step would be a ban on the use of loudspeakers at the protest site, where there was an angry response.
"It is an evil measure by a dictator government," said Reds leader Nattawut Saikuar from the rally stage.
"The government wrongly thinks that cutting the signal will stop Reds from gathering. We give final word to the government to connect our signal within today, otherwise people will fight for their rights."
The Reds say the government is illegitimate because it came to power with army backing through a parliamentary vote in December 2008 after a court decision ousted Thaksin's allies from power.
The Reds have promised another big gathering on Friday, extending more than three weeks of rolling rallies that attracted 100,000 people at their peak.
Abhisit's government has banned public gatherings of more than five people and given broad powers to police and military under emergency rule announced Wednesday in the capital and surrounding areas.
Tensions have escalated after the Reds forced their way into the parliamentary compound briefly on Wednesday, prompting lawmakers to flee and several senior government figures to be airlifted to safety.
The head office of the Reds' arch-rivals, the royalist "Yellow Shirts", was targeted on Thursday with a grenade and gunfire that wounded one policeman, a day after a grenade was reportedly fired into the army headquarters.
The followers of Thaksin, a billionaire telecoms tycoon who lives abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption, fervently support the populist policies he introduced before his ouster in a 2006 coup.
The military has mounted a heavy security response, deploying 50,000 personnel at one point to try to contain the protests, which drew as many as 100,000 people on March 14.
The government wants to avoid a repeat of last April's clashes with Red Shirts that left two people dead, six months after riot police took on the rival Yellow Shirts in bloody scenes outside parliament.
"We will not seek confrontation. We do not want to create conditions for instability," said government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn. "At the same time we would like to proceed further with the implementation of the law."
Under emergency rule, "now officers can destroy the cars that block intersections and they will not have to pay for it," he told reporters.
Red Shirts' TV channel shut
From www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia...STIStory_511994.html
Anti-government protesters kick at a security guard at Parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, on Wednesday April 7, 2010. Thai TV has reported that anti-government protesters have broken into the Parliament building after lawmakers aborted their session, with some of the legislators scaling a wall to escape. -- PHOTO: AP
BANGKOK - THAI authorities pulled the plug on the television channel of red shirted anti-government protesters on Thursday, prompting an angry response from the demonstrators.
'We have successfully shut down the People's Channel (P-TV),' Satit Wonghnongtaey, minister attached to the premier's office, told AFP.
He said the station had been taken off air for inciting unrest. The satellite TV channel's rolling coverage of the red shirt rallies was abruptly halted, leaving a blank screen.
The protesters, who have refused to end a mass rally in the capital despite a state of emergency, railed against the government's move.
'It is an evil measure by a dictator government,' said Reds leader Nattawut Saikuar from the rally stage.
'The government wrongly thinks that cutting the signal will stop Reds from gathering. We give final word to the government to connect our signal within today, otherwise people will fight for their rights.' The Reds have promised another big gathering on Friday, extending more than three weeks of rolling rallies that attracted 100,000 people at their peak. -- AFP
UDD asks govt to unblock PTV
From www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/174021...r-govt-to-reopen-ptv
The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) on Thursday asked the government to allow the reopening of the satellite-based People Channel television station (PTV), its mouthpiece carrying its message to red-shirts throughout the country.
The station's satellite signal was shut down on Wednesday night after the government declared a state of emergency in Bangkok and five adjacent provinces.
Natthawut Saikua, a UDD leader, said without information from the leadership via the People Channel the rural red-shirts might resort to various activities of their own.
He said the reds would continue to rally at Ratchaprasong intersection irrespective of the enforcement of the emergency decree.
He insisted that another major rally of the red-shirts would begin on Friday at 9am as planned.
The rally would be prolonged and would certainly draw a huge crowd. The protest activities would be at a higher level than before, he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said yesterday the Information and Communications Technology Ministry had been told to force satellite operator Thaicom Plc to shut down the People Channel because it was spreading false information about the government and its handling of the red-shirt protest. He said it was a threat to national security.
The ICT Ministry could use its authority under section 43 of the state's contract with Thaicom Plc to take action, he said
