Well the reaction to the Thaksin Shinawatra interview and my blog here on CNN.com has been pretty strong. I’d say you’re split 50-50 down the middle. Some of you hate me and think I failed in my job as a journalist, failed to ask the right questions, or simply should never have interviewed Thaksin in the first place. The other half of you seemly genuinely pleased and grateful.

So for those that persistently asked why I didn’t quiz Thaksin about the corruption charges, let’s set the record straight, shall we? None of you have heard or read the full interview so far -- it will be broadcast this weekend. What was broadcast and blocked this week was merely a two-minute excerpt.

In the full interview I repeatedly challenge Thaksin on the allegations of corruption, asking for example:

"What about the specific allegations against you of you know massive corruption in Thailand, of nepotism, of abuse of power of breaking multiple laws, what do you say to those charges?"

He answers and then I challenge him again …

"Well I mean you definitely for example appointed your cousin as the commander of the armed forces I mean that’s not in dispute?"

He answers and the once again I challenge him …

"But can you imagine in another country, Tony Blair for example, appointing his cousin to be the head of the army, it would be an outrage?"

He answers and once again I say:

"Is there not a conflict of interest though?"

I think you guys get the picture. I can’t post Thaksin’s responses here until the programme airs tomorrow. But I repeatedly challenged Thaksin about vote rigging, nepotism, his handling of the south, his handling of the war on drugs, I ask him specifically if he ever bent the rules.

You have to appreciate that Talk Asia is a programme which lasts just 22 minutes. I think in that time, I gave Thaksin a fairly thorough interrogation, while remaining balanced and fair. We had a lot of ground that we wanted to cover, so I couldn’t dwell for the full 22 minutes just on the corruption charges, but it would be totally wrong to suggest that I didn’t ask him questions about that.

I hope that assuages some of the anger on this forum. Feel free to keep posting. I’m glad the interview provoked a reaction anyway. Oh, and here is a cartoon of yours truly from today’s Nation. My wife says the ears are perfectly rendered by the artist. She is a cruel woman, that Mrs. Rivers!

CNN's Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, writes about the people she met while making "The War Within," which airs on CNN TV this weekend. The hour-long documentary looks at growing conflicts within Britain's Muslim communities.

"While Britain's Scotland Yard and MI5 intelligence service regularly warn of Islamist cells plotting violence -- some 30 potential plots have been identified -- some Muslim preachers, activists and ordinary people are beginning to see that they have to take the responsibility of seizing back their religion from the small band of extremists who have hijacked it."

We didn’t get to film the king … but actually I am a little relieved.

Despite our charm offensive with local officials here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Femi Oke and I have not been granted an audience or photo opportunity with the King of the Mossi people. It would have made a great picture story for Inside Africa.

So why am I slightly relieved?

The last time I filmed an African king was in 2006, when I went with CNN’s Richard Quest to Swaziland, to film an interview with the King, Mswati III. He is still held in great reverence and awe by his people. Before the interview, his aides where very concerned that I should not touch the king when putting his microphone on. Only his 13 wives and certain special people may touch him, I was told. The king of course said it was absolutely fine for me to mike him up, but when I was trying to hide the cable he became concerned I may have touched his special black wooden stick, which he held at all times. Not sure if I had brushed it, I thought it best to assure him I hadn’t. "But Sir, what would happen if I had?" I asked politely. "Something very bad will happen to you," he replied, to laughs from Quest and the producer.

The next day we needed one last sequence with the king. As we drove into his compound, I started to have strong pains in my chest, tingling up my arms and difficulty breathing. Quest was getting very agitated that I was about to have a heart attack. I started to black out and was rushed to a local clinic. There the doctor, without examining me, laid his hand on my heart and prayed to God "to care for me and protect me from the dark forces we know little about." Was he giving me my last rites or exorcising some magic curse? At this point it took all my will to convince myself that at 38 I wasn’t about to die. After a heart scan and an intravenous drip the doctor’s verdict was … stress. The diagnosis back in London was strained muscles between my ribs, (from a previous day of running through the African bush with camera on shoulder) causing acute chest pain and difficulty breathing.

I still wonder whether I did touch the king’s stick.

-- From CNN cameraman Neil Bennett

Well, our tussle with the military junta here is almost becoming comical. CNN’s signal into Thailand is being blocked whenever our exclusive interview with deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is broadcast. Yet, the entire transcript has been carried on the front pages of all the papers here in Thailand, so quite why it is being censored on TV is mystifying me. Whenever the signal is blocked, a montage of photos of various Hollywood celebrities is put out on CNN instead. My cameraman cruelly suggested most viewers would prefer to see Brad Pitt to Dan Rivers any day of the week! We’ve also become increasingly concerned about a number of sinister phone calls to our office here in Bangkok, with callers repeatedly hanging up and asking for information on the whereabouts of my Thai producer. Several of our phone calls from the office have also been mysteriously cut off. It smacks of an intimidation campaign – of course I have no proof of that, just a journalistic hunch. But it’s clear our interview has caused waves. We interviewed Thaksin in Singapore, where he also met a senior politician. Our interview threw his visit to Singapore into the limelight – now the military regime in Thailand is furious with the Singaporeans – they’ve cancelled an official visit of the Singaporean foreign minister and cancelled a civil service exchange programme, because they dared to have a meeting with the deposed prime minister of Thailand…oh and because they didn’t prevent CNN from interviewing him there too. The Singaporean Ambassador has also been summoned to government house here for a reprimand. It’s not quite war, but it’s certainly a jolly angry spat. Its ironic that the undemocratic, authoritarian junta here in Thailand is trying to take the moral high ground with Singapore – itself not exactly a paragon of freedom. In my opinion, it all bodes ill for Thailand’s return to democracy. The military junta had promised to lift martial law by the end of 2006 – but now we’re in 2007, and martial law remains in place, CNN is being censored, local TV stations are self-censoring their output and there is a growing climate of anger, trepidation and fear…especially in the CNN office, where the anonymous, threatening calls keep coming!

"Hi, we’re from CNN, take us to your king."

Well it was worth a try, and maybe we will be successful. You never know. Those three letters -- C.N.N. -- have a funny way of opening the most difficult of doors. Femi Oke and myself are in the greatest sounding capital in the world ... Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in West Africa (Just incase you didn’t know!) We are here to do a story about a Priest, Father Morris Oudet. Otherwise known as the Cyber Priest, because of his use of the Internet to connect the rural villages in this poorest of the poor countries in Africa. Passing news and farming techniques on to villagers, via the internet.

We have a restricted schedule here, but making most of our precious time we want to film another piece for CNN’s Inside Africa. The Mossi tribe is the largest, with a strong culture, identity, hierarchy and a King. A nice picture piece on a place rarely reported on. So why not check first whether the King is a fan of CNN and Femi Oke. This we are still to find out. But after a cool reception with his spokesman a letter was formally passed and we wait, not with bated breath. The irony was not lost on our presumptiveness. Could you imagine a news crew from Oagadougou landing in London, and asking to meet and film the Queen? "Ideally today, but Wednesday would be fine."

What was easier to film later today was the most charming Mossi family introduced to us by our local fixer. Life is hard here, and the mud hut compound was without electricity, plumbing and water. In fact the nearest well was three kilometers away. But with great courtesy we were welcomed to their world for an afternoon. The extended family let us film them preparing food, cleaning the cotton crop and telling stories, passed on from generation to generation. A real privilege to witness, and also a most humbling experience. They had so little, but the family still felt they needed to give their guests a gift -- a live white chicken. I great honor, we learnt. But a gift we couldn’t accept for obvious reasons, disregarding the code of practices we have to follow regarding gifts from interviewees.

We still want to film more Mossi cultural activities in the next few days, and possibly, just possibly, the King of the Mossi people.

-- From CNN camerman Neil Bennett

I had that "I love this story" moment which usually happens for me at some odd point in the process of shooting. We are covering the Kumbh Mela in the north Indian city of Allahabad -- one of the largest gatherings of human beings on Earth. We had gotten up before sunrise to see people taking a dip in the frigid (but in the Hindu faith, holy) water where these rivers meet. We did a number of interviews and got some shots of the sun rising while people were shivering in the early morning light.

But it wasn't until later when we hired a boat to see the pilgrims dipping in from a different perspective that the size of the gathering and the strength of their faith really struck me. Those dipping into the Ganges/Yumena rivers are cordened back by a little rope fence which is constructed, presumably, for saving people from going too deep and possibly drowning. But sitting on the boat, we looked back at the sloping shoreline which was absolutely full of the devoted coming to the waters edge.

Everyone was facing out, toward the confluence of the rivers, where we were floating. Looking toward the shore there were layers and layers of people, dipping in the water, praying individually, or in families and groups, some were singing and chanting , others lighting incense, some laughing, some shivering, some playing, some with their hands raised to the heavens. This was all you could see up and down the river which was covered in flowers that had been tossed in.

This is something I've witnessed in other forms in my time living in India -- there is an incredibly independent or individual experience that is often carried out in the most public of places.