Are You Sure You Wanna Say That? Self-Censorship in Thailand (2.6)

The shockwaves of the President-Elect of America have
shockwaved all the way over here to Bangkok, Thailand.
However, that's not what we're talking about today, though we could
talk about if we want to. And that's what we want to talk about.
Confused? Yeah…

 


(Direct download .mp3)


On October 13, the Kingdom of Thailand suffered a great
loss with the death of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Because we're a show ostensibly about Bangkok and the country of
Thailand overall, we recorded an episode of our podcast with that
topic in mind. And then we thought better of
it. Not because we were in any way critical,
satirical, or otherwise potentially running up against Thailand's
lese majeste laws. Indeed, the show was respectful to a fault,
and talked about how much Rama IX meant to the Thai people. But
we thought that maybe, in this particular situation, it's not all
that important for us, two foreigners living in the Kingdom, to
have an opinion. Those of you reading this from "the
free world" (though we each feel relatively free over here)
are probably looking at that last statement with disdain. But if
you listen to this week's show -- the episode about the episode
you'll never hear -- you'll find it's not all that uncommon to
self-censor. In fact, we do it all the time. And maybe, in a
world where the friction between thought and something for public
consumption is all too easy, we should do it more often.