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Thailands ruling military junta isfurther tightening itsgripon the public discourse by heightening its censorship measures, going as far as reportedly implementing widespreadsurveillance of Thai Internetusers. The new measure seeks to crush criticism at the military government and tocrack down on anything that is deemed insulting to the royal institution also known as lse majest.

When the Thai military declared martial law two days before it launched the coupof May 22, 2014, one of the main targetswas the complete control of the broadcast media, which resulted in the presence of soldiers at all major television channels and the shutdown of thousands of unlicensed community radio stations and over a dozen politically partisan satellite TV channels,primarily those belonging to the warring street protest groups.

Nearly five months later, most of these satellite TV channels (with one notable exception) are back on the air but have been renamed and had to considerably toned down their political leanings before they were allowed to broadcast again.TheTV hosts who were last years heavy-hitting political TV commentators are now hosting entertainment programs or, if theyre lucky, return to a talk show format, but only in the name of national reform and reconciliation.

But the military junta, also formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO),still has afirm grip on the media, as it has set upspecific monitor watchdogs for different media platforms (and also specifically for foreign news outlets) to screen out critical content against the NCPO. Furthermore, ithas practically issued a gag order to the Thai media only then to reiterate that while criticism against the military junta is allowed, it shouldonly be done in good faith.

The censorship measures and the monitoring efforts also extend online. Unlike during the last military coup in 2006, the emergence of social media networks makes it a daunting uphill battle for the juntato control the narrative. Nevertheless, the authorities have always been eager to have more control to filter and censor online content and have blatantlyresorted to phishing for user information, andeven considered launching its ownnational social network.And there was this:

In late May,a brief block of the social network Facebooksparked uproar online, while statements by the Ministry for Information andTelecommunicationTechnology (MICT) and the NCPO over whether or not the Facebook-block was ordered or it was an technical glitchcontradicted each other. It emerged later through a the foreign parent company of a Thai telco companythatthere actually was an orderto block Facebook, for which itgot scolded by the Thai authorities.

Thailands junta sets up media watchdogs to monitor anti-coup dissent, Siam Voices/Asian Correspondent, June 26, 2014

The junta also reactivated its Cyber Scout-initiative, recruiting school children and students to monitor online content for dissidents, and announcedplans forinternet cafes to install camerasso that parents can remotely monitor what their kids are doing.

The toweringmotive of the juntas onlinemonitoring efforts has been recently laid out by outgoing army chief, junta leader andPrime MinisterGeneral Prayuth Chan-ocha:

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Thailands junta extends censorship with mass online surveillance

CTC Media Inc. (CTCM), which runs Russias sixth-biggest television station, fell in New York yesterday on concern the government will limit foreign ownership in media companies.

CTC, whose largest shareholder is Stockholm-based Modern Times Group AB (MTGB), dropped 3.1 percent to $9.20, the biggest retreat in four weeks, as Russian legislators began work on a law aimed at capping foreigners stakes in print, radio and TV media. CTC, the countrys only publicly-traded TV broadcaster, has lost 34 percent this year on the Nasdaq Stock Market, compared with an 18 percent drop in the Bloomberg index of the most-traded Russian stocks in the U.S.

The legislation seeks to cap foreign media ownership at 20 percent, from the current 50 percent, forcing international shareholders to lower their stakes by early 2017 or shut down their companies. The move forms part of a series of measures that President Vladimir Putins government has taken since the U.S. and Europe began imposing sanctions on Russia for its involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Other steps have included the barring of some imports, tighter control over the Internet and an appeal to the nations companies to delist shares from overseas bourses.

This draft law confirms yet again that the country is on a path to isolating itself, Kirill Yankovsky, director of equity sales at Otkritie Capital, said by phone from London yesterday. It wants to reduce foreign investors role and influence and is now focusing on the media sector. Some investors are asking now whether Internet companies, the markets darlings, are at risk of becoming the next target.

The average 12-month price estimate on CTCs stock plunged to $10.84 on Aug. 20, the lowest level since 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Shares surged 79 percent last year.

CTC, which gets more than 96 percent of its revenue from ad sales, will post its first annual sales decline since at least 2010, according to the mean of 11 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg, as economic growth in the country slows. The companys billionaire shareholder Yury Kovalchuk was included on a U.S. sanctions list on March 20.

We are analyzing this draft law and monitoring its progress carefully, Yuliana Slashcheva, who took over CTC Media as Moscow-based chief executive officer in August last year, wrote in an e-mail yesterday. Given the early stage in the legislative process, we are not commenting on the potential timelines or outcomes.

Russias TV ad market grew 4 percent in January through June to about 79 billion rubles ($2.1 billion), according to data from the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia. The TV ad market expanded 9 percent in 2012 and 2013, the data show.

Gross domestic product will grow 0.5 percent this year, the slowest since a 2009 contraction, the Economy Ministry predicts, while the average of 38 economist forecasts compiled by Bloomberg indicates an expansion of just 0.25 percent.

Since June, the ruble has been the worlds worst-performing currency, driving up the price of imports and helping push annual inflation to 7.6 percent last month. A weaker ruble cuts CTC Medias dollar-denominated revenue, while higher inflation saps purchasing power.

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CTC Media Slumps on Plan to Cap Foreign Media Ownership

The Russian Aerospace Defense Forces again dismissed US media rumors of a Russian military satellite allegedly exploding above the United States.

"These statements are yet another attempt to find out the location of the space object after the United States has lost track of it," Aerospace Defense Forces spokesman Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.

He reiterated that all Russian spacecraft function in normal regime and ground control services have steady control over them. No malfunctions have been reported in the past days, according to the spokesman.

No malfunctions have been reported in the past days, the spokesman said.

A spokesman for the US Strategic Command told RIA Novosti earlier in the day that the Russian reconnaissance satellite re-entered the atmosphere and crashed last week.

On September 3, the American Meteor Society revealed more than 30 reports from alleged eyewitnesses who said they had seen a big fireball streaking across the sky. Website spaceflight101.com, dedicated to covering spaceflight events, assumed the fireball could have been Kosmos-2495 falling apart in the air.

Kosmos-2495, a member of the Yantar Russian satellite series, was launched on May 6, 2014, designed to operate on a low Earth orbit.

earlier related report US Strategic Command Confident About Russian Military Satellite Crash Moscow (RIA Novosti) Sep 18, 2014 - Russian reconnaissance satellite Kosmos-2495 re-entered the atmosphere and crashed last week, a spokesman for the US Strategic Command told RIA Novosti on Friday.

"US Strategic Command's Joint Functional Component Command for Space [JFCC Space] through the Joint Space Operations Center [JSpOC] assesses with high confidence that Kosmos-2495 re-entered the atmosphere and was removed from the US satellite catalog as a decayed object on September 3," the spokesman said.

The Russian Defense Ministry previously denied media reports of a Russian military satellite allegedly exploding over the territory of the United States.

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Russian Aerospace Defense Forces Again Dismiss Satellite Explosion Rumors

George Zimmerman Road Rage Incident!
SMH once again this murderer and Americas favorite criminal is threating to kill people, aka road raging, and the police have yet to arrest him, because the ...

By: voirdire92

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George Zimmerman Road Rage Incident! - Video

This image provided by the Seminole County Sheriff`s Office shows former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman after he was arrested Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, in Apopka, Fla. Zimmerman was charged with assault Monday after his girlfriend called deputies to the home where they were living and claimed he pointed a shotgun at her during an argument, authorities said. (AP Photo/Seminole County Sheriff's Office)

Seminole County Chief Deputy Dennis Lemma talks with media, Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, in Orlando, Fla., about the latest arrest of George Zimmerman, who was acquitted in July of criminal charges in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was charged Monday with assault after deputies were called to the home where he lived with his girlfriend, who claimed he pointed a shotgun at her during an argument, authorities said. (AP Photo/Willie J. Allen Jr.)

En esta foto del 9 de julio del 2013 se ve a George Zimmerman en una pausa en su juicio en Sanford, Florida, por la muerte de un adolescente desarmado. Una declaracin del condado de Seminole dijo que Zimmerman fue arrestado el 18 de noviembre del 2013 despus que la polica respondi a un llamado en el que se reportaban disburbios en una vivienda. (AP Foto/Orlando Sentinel, Joe Burbank, Pool, Archivo)

In this Monday, July 1, 2013 photo, George Zimmerman enters the Seminole County Courthouse, in Sanford, Fla., during his trial on second degree murder for the killing of Trayvon Martin. Whether they think he got away with murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin or that he was just a brave neighborhood watch volunteer standing his ground, many Americans cant seem to get enough of George Zimmerman. And he cant seem to stop giving it to them. (AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Joe Burbank, Pool)

In this still image made from dash-cam video provided by the Lake Mary (Fla.) Police, George Zimmerman is detained by officers on Monday, Sept. 9, 2013. Police in central Florida have been focusing on a broken iPad in their investigation of a domestic dispute between George Zimmerman and his estranged wife Shellie this week. Shellie Zimmerman called 911, saying her estranged husband was in his truck and threatening her and her father with a gun. She also said her husband punched her father in the nose. Hours later, she told police she hadn't seen a gun. (AP Photo/Lake Mary (Fla.) Police)

In this still image made from dash-cam video provided by the Lake Mary (Fla.) Police, George Zimmerman is detained by officers on Monday, Sept. 9, 2013. Police in central Florida have been focusing on a broken iPad in their investigation of a domestic dispute between George Zimmerman and his estranged wife Shellie this week. Shellie Zimmerman called 911, saying her estranged husband was in his truck and threatening her and her father with a gun. She also said her husband punched her father in the nose. Hours later, she told police she hadn't seen a gun. (AP Photo/Lake Mary (Fla.) Police)

George Zimmerman, right, is escorted to a home by a Lake Mary police officer, Monday, Sept. 9, 2013, in Lake Mary, Fla., after a domestic incident in the neighborhood where Zimmerman and his wife Shellie had lived during his murder trial. Zimmerman's wife says on a 911 call that her estranged husband punched her father in the nose, grabbed an iPad out of her hand and smashed it and threatened them both with a gun. Zimmerman was recently found not guilty for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

George Zimmerman, right, is escorted to a home by a Lake Mary police officer, Monday, Sept. 9, 2013, in Lake Mary, Fla., after a domestic incident in the neighborhood where Zimmerman and his wife Shellie had lived during his murder trial. Zimmerman's wife says on a 911 call that her estranged husband punched her father in the nose, grabbed an iPad out of her hand and smashed it and threatened them both with a gun. Zimmerman was recently found not guilty for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

In this June 24, 2013 file photo, George Zimmerman, left, arrives in Seminole circuit court, with his wife Shellie, in Sanford, Fla. Shellie Zimmerman called police on Monday, Sept. 9, 2013, saying her husband threatened her and her dad with a gun. Zimmerman was acquitted in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. (AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Joe Burbank, Pool, File)

Shellie Zimmerman, wife of George Zimmerman, pleads guilty at the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Fla. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013. Shellie Zimmerman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor perjury charge for lying during a bail hearing after her husband's arrest, and she was sentenced to a year's probation and 100 hours of community service. (AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Gary W. Green, Pool)

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George Zimmerman Told Motorist, 'Do You Know Who I Am? I ...