'Limited staffing hindered webboard screening'
Due to limited funding, there was just one person minding the webboard at prachatai.com and keeping an eye out for postings, which could go into the thousands every day, that could be considered defamatory to the monarchy, Jon Ungpakorn, co-founder of the
"It's difficult to go through all of them," he said, adding that the prachatai.com staff consisted of just 10 people.
Jon was in court to defend Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of prachatai.com, who is facing a maximum 20 years in prison under the Computer Crimes Act for not deleting 10 allegedly defamatory postings quickly enough. He said a website cannot facilitate genuine political debate if it does not permit real-time interaction.
"If we censor everything first, we cannot have a genuine exchange on the webboard ... It's like Facebook and Twitter," Jon explained, adding that the webboard, which has since been discontinued, also allowed members to look out for possible lese majeste content and block it temporarily.
Jon said the website's policy was to remove lese majeste remarks as soon as possible though in her job as director, Chiranuch, also had many other administrative chores to complete. After providing his testimony, Jon was asked by The Nation as to what he thought about the fact that foreign media and organisations seemed more interested in the case than local media. Jon responded by saying that this might have something to do with the fact that Thai mainstream media tended to avoid reporting anything related to the lese majeste offence.
"There are virtually no TV reports about the trial. Also, people who are calling for the repeal of the [lese majeste] law [and the Computer Crimes Act] are seen as having committed lese majeste themselves," Jon said.
The second defence witness yesterday was National Human Rights Commissioner Nirand Pithakwatchara. He told the court that prachatai.com played a significant role in fostering the freedom of press in Thailand, especially in a climate where the mainstream media is divided and tends to censor opposing views. This, he added, may be why genuine debate took place on prachatai.com and also why so many sensitive postings emerged after the 2006 coup.
Chiranuch will speak before the court today as her trial continues.
