The government may be sending the red-shirted Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship underground by shutting pro-DAAD media and end up risking a backlash, free-media activist Supinya Klangnarong warned yesterday.

The warning came as 66 pro-red-shirt Internet websites were blocked, scores of community radios silenced and the London-based Economist magazine taken out of circulation for the third time.
 
"I hope the government will use the arts of politics in dealing with it rather than resorting to the use of [the emergency] law," said Supinya, coordinator of the Thai Netizen Network (TNN).
 
Supinya suggests that the government seek court orders before shutting media outlets that it claims incite violence or insurrection or spread rumours. She also warns that some people may see the current crackdown as a exhibiting a double standard vis-เ-vis the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which has multimedia resources on its side as well.
 
Ubonrat Siriywasak, former lecturer of mass communications at Chulalongkorn University, said the crackdown reflected the refusal of the government to accept the basic principle of freedom of expression.
 
"How can it claim we're in a democracy?" Ubonrat asked.
 
She said there should be trust that debate will lead towards finding out what is true, and the government should not look at the red-shirt media as parts of a mere propaganda machine.
 
She also urged all media operators to exercise responsibility in what they reported or wrote and not incite violence or hatred.
 
"[The media] should not fan hatred or the killing of one another."