Thailand
Government continues to suppress freedom of speechPosted Jul 20 2007
In another example of increasing authoritarian control of the media in Thailand, the military government that seized control last September will convert major TV station iTV into an ad-free public broadcaster. The station will be renamed Thailand Independent Television and be operated by the Thai government, which took over the station after it failed to comply with orders to pay nearly $3 billion in fines. Immediately after the announcement, chief news anchor Kitti Singhapat resigned, telling the Bangkok Post he refused to work for an inflexible bureaucracy.