Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we're talking about Western hubris flouting Thai Laws on privacy and customs on privacy here in Thailand. As a preface here to this video, I think it's important to point out one, the article I'm going to cite is from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Near arrest for filming in red-light district reflects legal ambiguities. Another great article by Barry Kenyon. I have got to be honest with you; he is a good writer. I very much, I'm a friendly acquaintance of Mr. Kenyon. We have met on a few occasions. He's a good guy; he's an old school guy; he is an old hand; he's been here forever. I think he was the former British Consul down there in Pattaya. He has got a good eye for the issues of the expat community, and he has frankly got a good wit for articulating those issues and how the sort of shifting norms in the West collide with us who just want to be out here in lovely Thailand, just kind of drifting along without going through all the massive changes. 

One thing I have noticed over my time here in Thailand, is I first got here back in 2008, and it was basically the pre-smartphone era. I really loved pre-smartphone Thailand. Post-smartphone Thailand there are some issues I am not so thrilled about. I still love Thailand obviously and I am going to live here, and I have no intention of leaving or anything, but the smartphone in my opinion did not add much. If anything I think it detracted from the experience here. And one thing, one aspect of this that Mr. Kenyon brings up, and I'm going to read a lot of this article, but I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article for yourself, again, Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, Near arrest for filming in red-light district reflects legal ambiguities. First off, I think the title is a little bit erroneous because I question whether what they are talking about here is a red-light district, but I will get to that in a moment. 

The issue though is I am personally sick and tired of foreigners coming over here and thinking it's okay to just film people without any kind of permission. We are not a zoo, as the thumbnail suggests, okay. We're not. Thailand is different. It's one of the reasons people move here. Say what you will about so-called red-light districts, and again "so-called", I think it is kind of a misnomer to apply it to the place that we are going to talk about here in a moment. But okay. Maybe people, I personally like chicks in bikinis, okay, I'm sorry call me whatever you want to call me; I occasionally like a cold beer - although recently I'm cutting back on that because I'm trying to lose weight - but I like having a cold beer and looking at chicks in bikinis, sorry. Sorry, not sorry. The point I am trying to make is what gives anyone the right, and this is what I have a problem with, with the term that I have brought back up out of sort of the depths of history on this channel, “Glasnost”. The post, I would say I made a video about Nirvana Glasnost in another video, the post-smartphone Thailand has a lot of Glasnostian overtones and when I say Glasnost, people used to talk about Glasnost as if it was this good thing brought into the USSR but it is one of those double-speak kind of terms from that era where they always say oh it is transparency, and people thought it meant "oh there would be transparency in the government". When you look at the real, like you drill down on the translation, the better translation is publicity and what I would call social media. I think Glasnost and social media, if you did a Venn diagram of those two words, there would be a lot of overlap. 

Social media is not necessarily a good thing and people; there are basic norms of privacy here in Thailand and they should be maintained, and there are laws in place - as we have discussed in other videos that maintain them - and I really hate the Western hubris of people that come over here and think they can just, "oh I can just film you doing whatever I want, it's my right." No it isn’t, no it isn't. People should be able to enjoy themselves out in public without the fear of being filmed doing whatever it is they are doing, within reason. And we are not talking about lewd acts in public or anything like that, we are just talking about people who maybe, there are a lot of bars and restaurant areas and things of this nature, and I wouldn't even classify all of them as red-light where you are going to have like Hooter style dressed women where guys are going to be drinking beers, and they don't necessarily want to be filmed in that environment, and it is perfectly reasonable to want that. Also I am sick and tired, and this is a Western thing, that is increasingly being pervasively foisted in my opinion on Thailand, this notion that privacy is somehow inherently wrong. We have seen it in banking; "oh we have got to know everything about your banking", "we have got to track and trace everything you do through the digital tokens that we can tell you where to spend them, and how to spend them, and we can turn them on and off." Wel we are also seeing an erosion of that privacy in this Glasnostian, “we can film you anytime”. And again, it's contrary to Thai Law, you don't have the right to film people without their permission. It is also contrary to basic notions, basic customs of Thai privacy as well. You don't have a right to just film people as we will get into, for any reason, without their permission. 

That said, quoting directly: "English reality television personality Zara McDermott says she had a petrifying brush with Bangkok Police when she was filming her new BBC documentary The Dark Side of Paradise." Well first of all, who asked you to come over here and make that? I'm really also sick and tired of everybody coming over here and wanting to make videos negative on Thailand. Apropos of what? How about I make a thing, the Dark Side of the UK, and talk about all your problems? I also love how the West pretends it doesn't have any problems, so they come out here to the East where why don't you do a Dark Side of the UK and get into some of the issues going on in your own country which by the way are not insignificant. Quoting further: "The crew got into trouble on the first night when they were attempting to capture footage in the city's red-light district known as Khao San Road." Khao San Road? A red-light district? No. I don't think Khao San Road would be described by anybody as a red-light district. Entertainment Zone sure, but there isn't anything red-light really going on down in Khao San. Just FYI to everybody. Quoting further: "One of them had an ashtray thrown at their head before police unsuccessfully attempted to seize their footage and then move them on." Yeah, you know what, I have got to be honest with you. If you were filming me without my permission, I'm going to be inclined, I'm going to try to hold myself back - I'm not a believer in violence - but I'm going to be inclined to throw an ashtray at you. What gives you the right to do that? Again, Western hubris. Just "oh, we can do it; we are more civilized or something, we are better." Quoting further: "But at the show's press launch back in UK, Sarah said her team had jumped through all the hoops and obtained a permit which cost "a fair amount of money." She explained that the core of the documentary was to ask important questions about the ethics of the sex industry and to meet some of the women working in it in Thailand." Where are you meeting them in Khao San? I am here to tell you, anybody that has been here, go talk to Bangkok Pat if you want to, I am not saying he is an expert on red-light districts, no offense to you sir, I'm just saying your channel is very good, tip of the hat to you, you make good stuff about the different areas in Bangkok. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't describe Khao San as a red-light district.

This is another thing. These people come out here and they make these so-called documentaries and then, it is not even apropos of the reality. The other thing is you want to go interview, who by the way if you ever went to a real red-light district here in Thailand with a camera, you would see that the vast majority of the people, let's be honest, “people”, it's not just women that work in that industry. There is stuff that caters to men; there is stuff that caters to the transgender community, females, whatever, but the people that are working in that, they want their privacy too. What gives you the right to just come in and slam a camera in their face? It's wrong. And by the way, if you talk to a bunch, to any of these people for real, not just trying to tout a narrative that, "oh, it is all terrible out here," you would probably learn a thing or two and you would find out that some of them have come to their decision to engage in that industry after deep reflection and that the economics of it are just in their favour; that is what they want to do. By the way, there are some girls out there that just like being party girls; there are some boys out there that just like being party boys, and that's like what they like to do. I'm not condoning it, I'm not saying it's good, bad, indifferent. This is a free country. People can make the choices they make as long as they are consenting adults and frankly the what we would call "lewd in public" happens behind closed doors, where's the problem? 

This is the thing I always hated, as I came to learn about Thailand, why a lot of Thais really don't like the narrative, and I stress the "narrative" of the story of The King and I with Anna Leonowens, because the whole crux of it is "oh everything in Thailand was all messed up and then this white lady showed up and now everything's great again." It's this same neo-colonialist attitude coming from the UK, which has a myriad of problems in its own right, coming over here and trying to slam a camera in a bunch of people's faces who are trying to make a living and calling something a red-light district in a district that I wouldn't call a red-light district in a million years. Oh, because you want to learn about the "ethics" of the sex industry. Come on. No. You are trying to get views; you're trying to sensationalize to get views. Don't posture yourself as trying to do something good or something. No, that's not what you are doing. You're trying to get the most views you can on your content. Quoting further: "The three-part program airs on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer from September 8. Quote: "Thai lawyer Prem Srisantisuk said: "I have no doubt the British team believed they had a permit, but the law here is quite complicated. Thailand so far in 2025 has earned over three billion baht (about 100 million dollars) for over 300 foreign film productions." He explained they were professional films with actors, or multi-part TV series such as White Lotus, or advertisements - all warmly welcomed by Thai authorities." Yeah, because they weren't trying to make us look bad, and they weren't trying to force some nonsense narrative onto something that is not in line with the reality of the situation over here. Yeah, White Lotus came over here and Thailand was the background for that narrative. Fine. Quoting further: "He explained that the main legal authority was The Thailand Film Office of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports." Quote: "However, when negative stories arise, the outcome can be very different. In 2022 two CNN journalists were ordered to pay 5,000 Baht each and leave Thailand within hours for working in the country with Tourist Visas which are invalid for employment." Yeah, I did videos on that at the time. Quoting further: "They had briefly entered a daycare centre where more than 20 children were massacred, saying they had filmed inside believing they had permission. The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand criticized the CNN report as unethical and insensitive." Because it was. I found that behaviour to just be beyond the pale frankly; that was a horrible tragedy. I am sick and tired of the West trying to sensationalize Thailand as if it is something, how do I put it, like exotically bad, like it has a novelty of negative. Thailand is a normal country, okay. And by the way it's a very free country and that is the way I would like to keep it. I am not interested in the importing this Glasnostian paradigm where we get a bunch of nanny-minder Western women coming over to tell us how we should all be or how ethical things are, whatever. That said, quoting further: "Dr. Srisantisuk said that the filming in red-light districts often posed problems even with a permit." Well first of all, again I challenge the premise that Khao San Road is a red-light district to begin with. They were just in an area where people are liking to party and anybody that has been to Khao San, how many Western females walk up and down the two main roads of Khao San every day? Would any of those women called that a red-light district per se? I would love to know a survey of that. That said, quoting further: "He explained there was a clause in the Thai Criminal Code which forbids causing other people embarrassment or distress. Filming people without their consent falls into that category." Yeah, we have discussed that at length in other videos. It's illegal to film people without their permission in Thailand, especially in public. Stop doing it. Quoting further: "Moreover, some bars and clubs have notices specifying "no video" or "no camera" and failure to comply can lead to confrontation with security staff, or bouncers who know the law and have good contacts with local police." 

Yeah, by the way, if you take nothing else away from this video, don't do this. It's just wrong. I really have a problem. I know it's ironic because I have a presence on YouTube or whatever, but if you haven't noticed from the context of this video, I don't go around with my phone shoving it in everybody's face and filming them without their permission, but whatever. But I really do have a problem that it has somehow become okay in this world that you get to film people even though they didn't give you consent to do that. And where the level of entitlement comes from that causes a person to think that is all right; I don't get that. That said, quoting further and again, if you take nothing else away from this video, understand, if you do that in certain places you are going to have a real problem, and you may end up in a problem that you are not going to be able to solve, and you are not going to be able to have a brush with the way that this person did. No, instead you're going to have a problem that is going to be solved right then, right there on the street. That ain't fun. Quoting further: "The Ministry of Culture meanwhile has pioneered a Bill this year to deregulate and modernize Thailand's film industry." Oh great. Another one of these initiatives from this amazing Government we've had the past few months. "It specifies that production houses will no longer need a license to film in the country." I don't want that. As a Thai I don't want that at all. I want these people to have to get licenses to come film in this country. It's not their country, it's Thailand. The name is on the door when you come in the country: Thailand. Quoting further: "Instead, they will be required to notify the Thailand Film Office of their production cost and to submit material to private sector professionals to rate the content. However the Bill became bureaucratically stuck during recent Parliamentary" - I love "bureaucratically stuck." No, maybe it's not the will of the country, through our Parliament, to see this enacted into law and change the system from what it already is. Quoting further: "And Constitutional upheavals in Thailand and has not yet seen the light of day." Well I hope it doesn't. That said, quoting further: "A spokesperson for Pattaya Police said, quote: "When we get requests to film, for example in Walking Street, we require foreign camera users to get a permit and bring along a Thai intermediary who can speak to Police Officers or bar staff if problems arise." And this is a crux of again I think why there was a brush with problems here. "The intermediaries are popularly known as fixers, though none appears to have been deployed in the Zara case. That immediately led to language difficulties and misunderstandings." Oh so some Western woman and her entitled mind said she got to come over here and film people in their off time doing what they want; film people in the privacy of their own lives, and she didn't even think she needed an intermediary to speak the language of the country that she's in. 

I am sick of this hubris driving problems arising in Thailand because that's the crux of it. Western hubris of some woman who thought it was okay to come over here and film people who just want to have a good time in their off time and make a big issue of it as if they are in a red-light district which in my opinion is a gross misrepresentation of the fact of the matter. If we are talking about Khao San Road exclusively here, and I don't know the end product of this content, but if that is all we are talking about that, to label that as a red-light district is a material misrepresentation in my mind. And anybody that has ever been out here or lived here knows that, it is a tourist area. Yeah, it is primarily geared toward young people and there are a lot of dance clubs and things, I would love to see a survey of all the foreign women, let's make it foreign women, who are in Khao San Road at any given time, and see what percentage of them believe that that area is a red-light district. This whole thing is just nonsensical to me, and it exemplifies how this Western hubris, when brought over to Thailand causes nothing but problems.