Big Brother Comes to Southeast Asia

 

Big Brother Comes to Southeast Asia

M-----’s i.......on ministry strangles the press
John Berthelsen
Aug 7

Orwell would be proud

Since the 2020 onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ministry of C------ns and its executive arm, the C-------ns and M-----edia C------ion, have metastasized into one of Asia’s largest state information control agencies, raising concerns among civil libertarians and press protection organizations that it is using government largess to coopt the free press that was given birth after the 2018 fall of the corrupt and controlling B...n that had run the country for six decades.

The ministry itself is headed by F---i F----l, a former actor and writer appointed by ... when coalition came into power. The M..C is headed by businessman ..., the current executive vice chairman of the ... property conglomerate and politically well connected. He is considered by many to be the real power in the ministry.

A litigation-happy administrator, ..’s dual role as a high-ranking corporate tycoon and a powerful government regulator has drawn widespread but hushed criticism and legal battles. ... and the M..C he heads pursued Australian gadfly and critic Murray Hunter into Thailand, where he resides, engineering his arrest by Thai authorities on charges of criminal defamation and kicking off an outcry from international press protection organizations about the use of his power to curtail criticism. The charges were later withdrawn. On August 5, .... collected another scalp when the  Court ordered a former senator, to pay him 275,000 in two defamation suits and 75,000 in costs.

Multiplying mandates

Together, both F.... and .... control the enforcement mandate over online content, cybersecurity and social media platforms, which have multiplied into such vehicles as regulatory frameworks for social media services and vastly scaled-up internal spending/procurement thresholds…

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