by Tatiana Repkova

Thailand's decision to ban the video-sharing site YouTube highlights how aggressively the kingdom has tried to rein in the media since the military coup last year, analysts said.

YouTube has been unavailable in Thailand since April 4, after Thai authorities blocked it over videos deemed offensive to the nation's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej. In the nearly seven months since the ouster of prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the military has also blacked out international news broadcasts, seized a private television station, and blocked political Web siteWeb sites. Thailand has a long history of military rule, but the last time the country had a coup was in 1991, when the revolution in communication was still in its infancy.

Censors now face a much more difficult job, as critics of the regime use technology to find new ways to get their message out. Immediately after taking power, the military gave itself broad powers of censorship and dispatched armed soldiers to TV newsrooms to watch over the news broadcasts. The soldiers left the newsrooms after a few weeks, but the military-installed government last month seized control of the only private station in Thailand.

The government took over iTV after the broadcaster failed to pay a 100 billion baht (2.8 billion dollar) fine after losing a court battle over the terms of its concessions. The military has also issued sharp warnings to newspapers against reporting too heavily on Thaksin, while sometimes blacking out news about the coup or the deposed premier on CNN and BBC. AFP; April 8, 2007