Prachatai describes itself as "an independent, non-profit, daily web newspaper established in June 2004 to provide reliable and relevant news and information to the Thai public during an era of serious curbs on the freedom and independence of Thai news media." Their objectives include, "to promote active public participation in Thai news media."
The "independent" daily web newspaper does indeed make daily posts with information taken from organizations with heroic sounding names, including "Freedom House," "Human Rights Watch," "Amnesty International," and the "International Federation for Human Rights," with almost all of their stories centered around anti-censorship, pro-free speech and pro-democracy topics.
At Prachatai.com, one would think it would be the last place to fall victim of the very same censorship they fight against daily. In reality, it is one of the first places to expect such double standards.
In Reality
In reality, Prachatai abjectly lies about being "independent." In fact, they are fully funded by the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID, Wall Street banker George Soros' Open Society and Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF), the Rockefeller Foundation, and the German government's Heinrich Böll Foundation. It was only last year, in 2011, that this information was made available to the public, and only after months of working to expose and hold Prachatai accountable.
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