CJ Hinke is a translator, book publisher and bibliographer of numerous children's books in Latin and Thai. He has lived in Thailand since 1989 where he founded Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) in 2006 to campaign against pervasive censorship in Thai society. As a Quaker, he became an organiser in the pacifist movement opposing the war in Vietnam and was arrested more than 35 times in demonstrations of civil disobedience. After moving to Canada, in 1976, he became the last American arrested for the Vietnam draft, pardoned by Jimmy Carter's first official act as US President. CJ formed the Society Protecting Intact Kinetic Ecosystems (SPIKE) which supported the tree-spiking of one of the world's last intact temperate rainforests in Clayoquot Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island. FACT's campaign is active internationally in resisting Internet, book, film and self-censorship. “Freedom of opinions, freedom of thought, freedom of ideas, every one of us deserves a voice.”
Latest posts by CJ Hinke
Police lèse majesté “experts” in Prachatai trial
A capacity crowd of supporters filled the lèse majesté trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of Thailand’s independent online news portal Prachatai, which continued into its seventh day at Bangkok’s Criminal...
Thailand: Free speech on trial – day five
Day Five – Police scientist testifies for prosecution ((Please also read day one, day two, day three and day four trial.) The fifth day of trial continued on Friday for...
Thailand: Free speech on trial – day four
Day four: MICT and police lawyers testify (Please also read day one, day two and day three trial) The trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, independent news portal Prachatai’s webmaster continued Thursday...
Thailand: Free speech on trial – day three
Day Three – MICT’s legal advisor testifies: “Freedom has its limits.” (Day one and day two trial) The third day for prosecution witnesses in the trial of Prachatai webmaster Chiranuch...
Thailand: Free speech on trial (day two)
Day Two: Thailand’s chief censor continues in Prachatai trial (Day one trial see) The second day in the lèse majesté trial against Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of Thai independent news portal,...
Thai webmaster facing 50 years for lèse majesté postings
The trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, nicknamed Jiew, opened on Friday at Bangkok’s Criminal Court, the venue changed to Courtroom 701. A larger courtroom was needed due to an unprecedented number of observers from numerous Thai and foreign NGOs, local and international media, and foreign embassies.
Thailand now blocking 277,610 websites
Conservative, Royalist Manager media network published the first govt announcement of further Internet censorship since July. Buried in Manager’s propaganda, we learn that the new Army commander has signed a memorandum of understanding with the ICT minister and the ministers of justice and culture. The MOU specifies 43,000 new websites to be blocked immediately and 3,000 pending for lèse majesté content.
Thailand’s Emergency: Who Killed the King?
David Streckfuss, a human rights expert on political and cultural history, finds that the heart of the longstanding and ongoing lèse majesté debate rests in the country’s defamation law. This truism concerns not only academics who are constrained from speaking freely but also ordinary citizens.
Thailand: Government shuts 43,000 more websites for lèse majesté, plans to block 3,000 more, total up to 113,000
On May 9, MICT and CRES admitted to blocking at least 50,000 websites and adding 500 more per day. It appears FACT was blocked from that date. FACT’s extensive testing...
Thailand pulls plug on TV station, decrees martial law, arrests Webmasters, blocks 10,000 more websites
Thailand’s draconian Internal Security Act was passed in 2007 in its 11th hour by a national legislature appointed by a military coup. Its targets appeared to be the ongoing insurgency in Thailand’s five Muslim provinces in the Deep South, collectively called Patani.
Thailand: Another lèse majesté computer act arrest
On February 5 an unidentified man was arrested for comments he posted to a webboard. His house was searched, his computer confiscated as evidence, his family frightened, and friends panicked....
Google for good…or just for money?
Google’s recent opposition to Internet censorship in China went wildly underreported in Thailand. Yet this move to seize the moral high ground has vast implications to Thailand and every other...
Thailand’s new tsunami of political repression – SET them FREE!
Politicians can be so entertaining. Sometimes we laugh so hard we cry. Of course, the posturing and bluster of politicians always leads to the truth being forgotten as they try...
Thailand: Liberal Thai blocked by MICT!
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT). We have just discovered free Thai language news site Liberal Thai blocked by a transparent proxy redirecting users to Thailand's ICT ministry. Liberal Thai is...
Thailand: Nine new charges against Prachatai webmaster
Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of independent Thai online news portal Prachatai, was arrested on March 6 under Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act. Her charges resulted from allowing comments posted by readers of Prachatai’s online discussion fora alleged to be lèse majesté.
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) releases new legal circumvention tools
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) is pleased to announce two new, easy, legal tools for circumventing Internet censorship. Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the Official Censor of the Military Coup, has blocked at least 17,775 websites which, along with blocking by the Royal Thai Police, resulted in more than 50,000 websites blocked in Thailand. Public webboard discussions, circumvention tools, voices from Thailand's Muslim South and critical commentary of Thailand's monarchy were particularly targetted for censorship.
Harry Nicolaides, Thailand's latest political prisoner
The Harry Nicolaides case raises vital issues, procedurally, legally and in Thai society. Was Harry arrested because he wrote in English and therefore his self-published expat bargirl novel of 50 paid-for vanity copies of which seven (we repeat, seven) copies were actually sold, represented a clear and present danger to the Thai monarchy from the world community?
Censoring Free Speech in Thailand
The past few weeks have seen YouTube blocked again as well as Prachatai, Thailand’s foremost independent news portal and Same Sky, a journal of social criticism. Both sites have popular public Web discussion boards. In the past, both sites have been warned by MICT to self-censor “sensitive” public comments.