Explaining to a three-year-old why she can't watch her favourite cartoon programme can be difficult at the best of times. But when she's asking you why the same loop of marching songs is playing on repeat — interspersed with announcements by stiff men in uniforms — one mother says she was lost for words.
"I don't understand why they had to black out cartoon channels on cable TV," says the woman, who asked to be identified only as Pojana.
Her daughter knows that she's normally allowed to watch half an hour of television after dinner. But all TV channels were suspended by the National Peace and Order Maintaining Council during the first 24 hours of the coup. Programming has now resumed, but channels must carry announcements from the coup-makers.
Deprived their usual game shows, lakorn and cartoons, viewers tuned in to watch a still screen emblazoned with the coats of arms of the Supreme Command, army, air force, navy and national police. The military music on loop blared out tunes and lyrics that people of older generations know almost by heart.
Ms Pojana says the fact that schools nationwide have been temporarily shut down literally brought the crisis home. “On top of the uncertain situation, there is nowhere to go, no TV to keep my daughter entertained, and no easy explanation,” says Ms Pojana. "It has been a very difficult day to get through for my family."
Pirongrong Ramasoota from Chulalongkorn University's communication arts faculty says the censorship of TV and radio channels has made social media the primary tool for communications, despite scope for inaccuracies.
“This is wartime. Power has been taken," she says. Ms Pirongrong argues that the public now needs a clear time-frame to indicate when the situation will return to normal, “otherwise we might as well admit that we are not a democratic country”.
Practical inconveniences aside, she suggests that the censorship of TV could be seen as an opportunity for people to spend time with their families, “or buy a good book”.