Blog your way to a free media

I don't know how up to date people are with the proposed take over of Matichon and Post Publishing by GMM Grammy group here in Thailand.

There has been a lot of suspicion behind who is really hiding in the shadows and what the real motives are for the move. The general public feel that it is a step from the powers that be to curtail freedom of speech as both Matichon and The Bangkok Post (Thai and English language respectively) have been very vocal with criticisms of the Government.

The timing then could not have been better for the release from Reporters Without Borders (article from the BBC)

Thai's are becoming increasingly mobile, practically everyone has a mobile phone. In many cases the mobile is the only phone due to a lack of infrastructure from TOT and no real plan to upgrade the network as is.

Many mobiles are top end models that far exceed the content delivery services of the top 4 operators; as such there is room for mobile syndication. In recent days many papers have published access options for mobile readers, typically by SMS.

Now combine the trend towards mobile updates with blogging and anonymised reporting. It asks questions of how people who may not have the best interests of press freedom could stop such a technology from being effective in communicating with an increasingly wary population.

A very real analogy with Paul Jardine's recent posting on "free" speech the old way can be drawn with the perceived situation today in Thailand.