Thai Tv Censorship Leaves Me Incredulous.

[giddyup]

Censorship is a common tool used in any dictatorship. But that doesn't mean it has any logic attached to it.

There's no censorship on television in the US, UK, Australia, and Europe then? You're free to say whatever and show whatever you like?

News to me...

Of course there's censorship in those countries, but it's a hell of a lot more liberal than it is here. I can't ever recall seeing a woman's cleavage or breasts pixellated in Australia, and that's going back to the 70's. Also the press can criticise politicians and expose corruption without the fear of being killed. Chalk and cheese. I accept it is what it is here, and I agree it's not worth moaning about (before someone tells me to go home) but it is strange none the less.

So, it's your position that censoring images of breasts is a tool of oppression used by the Thai dictatorship? And that censorship isn't a sign of dictatorship in the West because it's more liberal (ie., you can see cleavage by still not bare breasts on broadcast television in most places)?

I think you need to rethink your grand theory.

What on earth are you on about, you sound like some 60's radical. Read my original post, nowhere have I mentioned anything about a dictatorship or oppression. I was commenting on the incongruity of pixellating the breasts and <deleted> of marble statues on one channel, yet being able to see semi naked gyrating Thai girls on another channel. Semi naked girls who are asked to pick how big a banana they can eat I might add. If that's not suggestive, I don't know what is. So get off the soapbox OK?

[NewlyMintedThai]

Perhaps you're witnessing a difference between free-to-air broadcasts and cable television? Or between time slots? It is stricter during daytime and early evening hours than it is later at night.

In any case -- sorry -- I guess it was someone else who ventured the gem that "censorship is a common tool used in any dictatorship".

[pattayadingo]

Watching one movie some time ago on True - Alien, I think - as she walking towards the camera dressed in bra and bikini briefs there was no pixellated censorship. Yet as she turned and walked away from the camera wearing the same clothes, they pixellated her ass out. The mind boggles at what they were thinking.

I too have never really understood their need for this type of censorship.

If the censors are so determined, as they seem to be, why do so many Thai soaps have guns and smoking, only for them to be pixellated? Would it not be better to say, 'Bang, you're dead??' Or even not show guns and smoking in the first place?

TiT

[giddyup]

Watching one movie some time ago on True - Alien, I think - as she walking towards the camera dressed in bra and bikini briefs there was no pixellated censorship. Yet as she turned and walked away from the camera wearing the same clothes, they pixellated her ass out. The mind boggles at what they were thinking.

I too have never really understood their need for this type of censorship.

If the censors are so determined, as they seem to be, why do so many Thai soaps have guns and smoking, only for them to be pixellated? Would it not be better to say, 'Bang, you're dead??' Or even not show guns and smoking in the first place?

TiT

They need those old prop guns, the ones where a stick with a flag that says Bang! comes out.

[krisb]

What's incredulous mean?

[giddyup]

What's incredulous mean?

Grab a dictionary, or use Wikipedia.

[bunta71]

INCREDULOUS ... The apparent reaction one feels upon seeing a midget fondling a three year old's penis on prime time Thai TV .The boy was crying like crazy, overwhelmed by being chased by a midget on national TV, caught and then groped for a couple moments as the world of Thailand explodes with real and fake laughter...

[Will2011]

Democracy doesn't mean there's no rules and regulations. Of course, there is some degree of censorship, but the difference between democratic countries and the non-democratic ones is that in most of western countries, we don't send people to jail for 50 years because they expressed what they thought.

[rijb]

Democracy doesn't mean there's no rules and regulations. Of course, there is some degree of censorship, but the difference between democratic countries and the non-democratic ones is that in most of western countries, we don't send people to jail for 50 years because they expressed what they thought.

Maybe not. But, the FBI will certainly keep track of you for the rest of your life.

[FunFon]

Democracy doesn't mean there's no rules and regulations. Of course, there is some degree of censorship, but the difference between democratic countries and the non-democratic ones is that in most of western countries, we don't send people to jail for 50 years because they expressed what they thought.

Maybe not. But, the FBI will certainly keep track of you for the rest of your life.

-

No we just hound them with arbitrary investigation, rumour-mongering until their lives are ruined. Calling Amerika's current political system a "democracy" is a bit of a stretch, I'd put permissiveness in media wrt sexuality or consistency in censorship laws pretty far down as to what's actually important to true personal freedom from a political POV.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/aaron-swartz-prosecutorial-misconduct_n_2867529.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/13/03/life-inside-the-aaron-swartz-investigation/273654/

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/03/11/130311fa_fact_macfarquhar?currentPage=all&mobify=0

http://archive.org/details/AaronSwartzMemorialAtTheInternetArchive

[pattayadingo]

Spartacus - The War Of The Damned - tv series is what my S.O. really loves at the moment.

Rippling muscles, blood, sex, beheadings. No censorship or pixellation there, but then again it is not a Thai version

[giddyup]

Spartacus - The War Of The Damned - tv series is what my S.O. really loves at the moment.

Rippling muscles, blood, sex, beheadings. No censorship or pixellation there, but then again it is not a Thai version

And it's not on Thai television is it?

[pattayadingo]

Spartacus - The War Of The Damned - tv series is what my S.O. really loves at the moment.

Rippling muscles, blood, sex, beheadings. No censorship or pixellation there, but then again it is not a Thai version

And it's not on Thai television is it?

I doubt it very much.

Though I did hear at one point they were showing some of the original Spartacus series on Thai tv. Maybe a bit too gory and risque for their tastes at the end of the day. I doubt very much you would see a lot of picture, more pixellation that anything else.

[giddyup]

Spartacus - The War Of The Damned - tv series is what my S.O. really loves at the moment.

Rippling muscles, blood, sex, beheadings. No censorship or pixellation there, but then again it is not a Thai version

And it's not on Thai television is it?

I doubt it very much.

Though I did hear at one point they were showing some of the original Spartacus series on Thai tv. Maybe a bit too gory and risque for their tastes at the end of the day. I doubt very much you would see a lot of picture, more pixellation that anything else.

I downloaded a couple of episodes, the sword and sandal stuff isn't really my thing, but there was plenty of nudity, violence and explicit sex.

[Star Dust]

Sex on TV can’t hurt, unless you fall off.

[h90]

Notice they have no problem showing accidents and bits of bodies most days on TV....

people get born (naked actually) live, have sex and die. I don't know why there need to be protected of seeing parts of it?

[FunFon]

people get born (naked actually) live, have sex and die. I don't know why there need to be protected of seeing parts of it?

-

But I think the point many are trying to make is that if you are going to censor something then violent behaviour and blood and gore should certainly take precedence over healthy body parts seen only from the outside.

[Thereisnoif]

Who in their right minds watches Thai TV ?

[Suradit69]

If you're talking about television shows that also air in Malaysia or Indonesia, including some Fox stuff, the censorship is meant to cater to them and has nothing to do with Thailand. In Thailand they seem mainly interested in pixelating cigarettes and guns. I just watched something about Manet paintings on TV and there was an abundance of unfettered breasts . I've also seen NGC specials, etc with everything on display for both men and women. On the other hand, in the Modern Family sitcom aired on Fox and shown also in countries to the south, a picture hung over the fireplace of the gay couple (simply standing next to each other fully clothed) was pixelated.

There's plenty of absurdity in the world not caused by Thais, although it seems they get blamed for pretty much everything here on TV.

When I stayed in Pakistan, every time someone started to lean in for a kiss In movies and serials, no matter how Platonic or maternal, an ad for a laundry detergent would fill the screen. In the case of some movies you spent more time looking at boxes of detergent than the actual movie.

[muythai2013]

censorship is having the brains not to take your children down walking street.

monitor their internet and tv programs.

The Thai censorship may be strange, but we raise our children not them, we should be responsible.

There is no personal respnsability in anything anymore.

[h90]

Democracy doesn't mean there's no rules and regulations. Of course, there is some degree of censorship, but the difference between democratic countries and the non-democratic ones is that in most of western countries, we don't send people to jail for 50 years because they expressed what they thought.

No only 10 years (Thailand, Austria etc etc etc) and look at the democratic countries and think how democratic they are really. Got asked which of the 2-4 parties (who more or less control all media) you like every 4-5 years isn't really that democratic.

I can't recall that anyone ever asked for my opinion on any rules or regulations.

[muythai2013]

Democracy doesn't mean there's no rules and regulations. Of course, there is some degree of censorship, but the difference between democratic countries and the non-democratic ones is that in most of western countries, we don't send people to jail for 50 years because they expressed what they thought.

No only 10 years (Thailand, Austria etc etc etc) and look at the democratic countries and think how democratic they are really. Got asked which of the 2-4 parties (who more or less control all media) you like every 4-5 years isn't really that democratic.

I can't recall that anyone ever asked for my opinion on any rules or regulations.

DEMOCRACIES are controlled by the major corperations, meaning Democracy is an illusion.

We don't choose anything.

[how241]

You're trying to use logic. I'll never understand why nudity is bad and violence isn't.

+1

[FunFon]

censorship is having the brains not to take your children down walking street.

-

Don't know about you, but I want to make sure my children understand trans-gender and sex work issues from me long before they start to hear their friends and neighbors talk about, nothing wrong with taking kids of any age on tours of such areas.

Not to mention the benefits of witnessing first-hand the kinds of insanity caused by substance abuse, particularly alcohol. . .

[FunFon]

DEMOCRACIES are controlled by the major corperations, meaning Democracy is an illusion.

We don't choose anything.

-

Some are more democratic than others. I put the USA not much better than Thailand, but the Swiss model seems to work pretty well.

And I really like the idea of making voting compulsory, would put Obama way out on the right wing of the US political spectrum, and the GOP would become totally irrelevant overnight.

But electoral finance reform would have to come first, the recent unlimited-corporate-money ruling has really put the nail in the coffin for representative government there.

[muythai2013]

censorship is having the brains not to take your children down walking street.

-

Don't know about you, but I want to make sure my children understand trans-gender and sex work issues from me long before they start to hear their friends and neighbors talk about, nothing wrong with taking kids of any age on tours of such areas.

Not to mention the benefits of witnessing first-hand the kinds of insanity caused by substance abuse, particularly alcohol. . .

they will not learn that from seeing people standing in doorways.