Opinion

Let's forget the few pros and many cons of the gateway project for a moment and review the trail of evidence that led to its public disclosure, a Pyrrhic victory for transparency if it prompts the government to better hide its tracks and find even darker corners to conduct the public's business.

Public and foreign diplomats are routinely told by the military regime that Thai media enjoys freedom to criticize. That’s only half true at best. The reality is that, two years after the 2014 coup, the selective pressures being applied on some media critical of the junta have just become more subtle and sophisticated, thus rather invisible.

Who owns the Internet? The answer is no one and everyone. The Internet is a network of networks. Each of the separate networks belongs to different companies and organizations, and they rely on physical servers in different countries with varying laws and regulations. But without some common rules and norms, these networks cannot be linked effectively. Fragmentation – meaning the end of the Internet – is a real threat.

A week before the referendum on the junta-favored charter draft, which ended in a decisive victory for a constitution written entirely by junta appointees, I asked a taxi driver if he would tell me how he would vote.

Whenever disruptive innovation reaches the shores of Thailand, time and again the knee-jerk reaction is to make a huge fuss, ban it as yet another Western evil, launch a “better” “proper” Thai alternative that nobody ends up using and finally forgetting about it when people move on to the next crisis du jour.

BANGKOK — One of the biggest dilemmas facing those opposed to the coup makers is to whether participate in tomorrow’s referendum on the controversial junta-sponsored charter.

The withdrawal of an ultraconservative newspaper from the largest national media association last week was another chapter in the ongoing debate and struggle over the role of Thailand's mass media.

The recent failed coup attempt in Turkey highlights the country’s continuing vulnerability to military takeover. But it also reveals a newly developed – and highly potent – as set, one that Turkey’s neighbors should also seek to cultivate: a strong middle class willing and able to mobilize against extremist threats.

Last week’s failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reignited the pro-vs-anti coup debate in Thailand, particularly on social media.

BANGKOK — Red bowls, balloons, leaflets attack the charter underwritten by the military. Toys with messages call for freedom and democracy, while people stand still in public, read George Orwell’s 1984, or even eat sandwiches.