Thailand's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry was preparing to file a charge against Google in Thailand after it refused to remove video clips that insulted the King of Thailand, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Since April 4 the ministry has blocked access to the YouTube website, owned by Google, after it showed film clips deemed offensive to the monarchy.

The government approached Google, but the company said it had no policy about content deemed offensive in Thailand, Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom was quoted by local news group The Nation as saying.

Sitthichai said the ministry would seek to file a charge with the Criminal Court on Friday.

According to the latest report, YouTube asked the Thai government -- by e-mail -- to send the controversial clips deemed insulting the King to U.S.-based YouTube as evidence so it will remove them as requested by Thailand.

However, the ICT ministry viewed this as a move by YouTube as " playing a game", the state-run Thai News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Source: Xinhua