US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
444 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6225
Majority Phone: (202) 224-4651
Majority Fax: (202) 228-3612
Minority Phone: (202) 224-6797

Please pass this American voter note of extreme concern to committee members and if at all possible, kindly pass this and any subcommittee concerns to higher levels of the United States government with direct interest in providing aid, especially military, to Thailand.

Thank you.

Concern:

Again, the 2007 military-backed Thai constitution and the unrivaled 2007 Computer Crime Law also backed by the Thai military have been used in a malicious, punitive manner to dissuade free speech and coerce the Thai media, and indeed, media abroad, into censoring legitimate news and views.

Kindly refer to this most recent report by Thailand's English-language daily the Bangkok Post Recent report and Reuters' Report.

Although Thailand was able in past decades to falsely convince its western and other allies that it had indeed adopted the road to democracy, clear and public evidence of near-total subjugation of all media, as well as public speech, thinking and acts has been demonstrated time and time again with one severe prison sentence after another, one huge fine after another, as they are leveled by sympathetic Thai courts against those who would speak the truth in Thailand.

I respectfully urge the subcommittee, and other US government agencies who do care about legitimate free speech and about protecting that speech and preventing its actors from being persecuted, to contact the Thai government to express concern, investigate and to issue an official US government report on this most recent, as well as former related, attempts, most of them highly successful, by the Thai state apparatus to silence truth and punish those who tell it.

Thank you for your kind consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

Frank G Anderson

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Thailand, Group 12 1966-67

(present address in Thailand supplied.)

Phuketwan is marking the 30-day countdown to the 30th anniversary of the World Media Freedom Day on May 3 with news outlets around the world.