Jotman Focus of Wikipedia Debate

Today, if you read the Wikipedia article on the Thailand Coup D'etat, under the heading "Siam Center, 22 September" you will see it written: "Nobody was arrested...." This highly controversial assertion -- presented as fact by Wikipedia -- flies in the face of a report by Jotman.

Early efforts are now being made to document the Thai coup d'etat. Writers are confronted with an unprecidented, new choice: do they go with traditional media sources, despite the overwhelming evidence such reports are subject to censorship, self-censorship, and manipulation by government propogandists? Or do they give consideration to the documentation -- including photographs and videos -- provided by blog-reporters like Knarly Kitty or Jotman? Some authors of Wikipedia appear seriously divided on this question. This from Wikipedia Talk:

Here are some pictures of the protest gnarlykitty/mob-at-paragon and jotman/we-love-democracy As PROVEN by the pictures, soldiers were present at the protest. This is contradictory to what the Bangkok Post claims. Bangkok Post claims no police or soldiers were present except for security guards that work for Siam Center. You still think Bangkok Post is a trustworthy source of information??? Humanoid 14:37, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Under the heading "People arrested during first protest" at Wikipediat Talk this disussion ensues:

According to a guy who has talked directly with one of the protesters. 7 people were arrested during the protest. jotman/saturday Since this information is probably not going to be reported by the thai media until the end of the junta, and wikipedia rules mean that we cannot provide this information on the main page, I'm posting it here until somebody finds a source that is accepted by wikipedia rules. Humanoid 14:54, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Another Wikipedia writer responds:

There is no indication who this prostester is, who are the person arrested ("not from his group" he says) or who the reporter is. In another video http://jotman.blogspot.com/2006/09/this-way-is-even-worse-than-thaksin-way.html the protester wearing black does not report any arrest and even wonder why they have not been arrested! The problem with this kind of info is that you can make what you want of it.

Here is a transcript of the Jotman video clip in which protestor arrests are discussed:

Journalist: How many people were arrested, about?
Protestor: Seven.
Journalist: Seven. Seven were arrested. And that was just the beginning.
And these were part of your group?
Protestor: No, they’re not part of it but we were moving toward the same goal.
Journalist: So why did you come out here today?
Protestor: Today we came here to denounce the military and to state that we will not tolerate their presence in the city. Sorry I have to go, very sorry.