News
May 22, 2022
Former transport minister Chadchart Sittipunt emerged as the decisive winner after vote counting concluded on Sunday night in Bangkok’s first gubernatorial election in almost a decade.
May 22, 2022
Four monarchy reform activists were again denied bail on 20 May, including Tantawan Tuatulanon, who has been on a hunger strike for the past 32 days to demand the right to bail, while a protest caravan visited the Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court and the Bangkok Remand Prison to demand the release of 11 detained activists.
May 20, 2022
On 17 May, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOT), activists held a rally for LGBTQ rights and called for marriage equality by rewriting the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the Thai marriage law.
Highlight
7 Apr 2022
Although it’s now common for royal insult defendants to be freed on bail, their freedom often comes with vague conditions like bans on joining protests that could lead to “chaos” or doing anything that “damages” the monarchy. Experts question whether these conditions may violate the rights to free expression.
20 Apr 2022
Election banners have become a leading campaign gimmick in the gubernatorial race. In response to criticism that the plastic banners are wasteful relics from the pre-digital era, some candidates have come up with ‘green’ alternatives, like shrinking banners or promising to recycle them after the vote is over.
29 Mar 2022
Declared 2 years ago to combat the spread of Covid-19, Thailand’s State of Emergency has resulted in diminished freedom of expression and assembly. It has also been used as grounds for cracking down on pro-democracy protests and prosecuting activists.
Feature
May 25, 2022
A disability rights advocate spent half a day in jail – in his wheelchair – after a court unexpectedly accepted a criminal case against him and held him in custody as his lawyers scrambled to raise bail. His alleged crime: posting a photo of a car that he believed was improperly occupying a wheelchair user’s parking space.
May 24, 2022
Apr 30, 2022
Government data says 2 million out of 12 million senior citizens have yet to receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and many more have yet to get their booster shots, despite established evidence that the elderly population is most at risk in the face of Omicron’s onslaught.
Round Up
May 23, 2022
Following the stunning victory on Sunday night by gubernatorial candidate Chadchart Sittipunt, who carried all of Bangkok’s 50 districts in a record-breaking sweep, many observers spent Monday speculating what the phenomenon would mean for Thai politics on the national level.
May 13, 2022
In a new surge of detentions, six people are in jail in connection with the royal defamation law – five of them denied bail to contest the charges outside prison. A human rights lawyer said the move illustrates the authorities’ obsession with smothering any public criticism of the monarchy.
May 10, 2022
The online shopping app LAZADA has become the target of a boycott by the Thai authorities and netizens in protest against their online sales campaign that has been seen as mocking the disabled, with royalists also angry that it somehow defames the monarchy.
Interview
May 17, 2022
A talk with Thep Boontanondha, author of “The King’s Soldiers and the Fostering of Faith and Loyalty” in an attempt to see how the Thai armed forces have been imbued with monarchism. As the influence of the monarchy ebbs and flows, the practice lives on, affecting the political landscape even after the fall of the absolute monarchy.
Apr 1, 2022
Enforcement of the 2019 Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) has been postponed for 3 years. A committee member was appointed from the National Security Council as being qualified to protect the national interest. The text contains many exemptions from the law, or do the principles need to make way for the exceptions?
Mar 16, 2022
After the last two activists held in pre-trial detention were granted bail on 4 March 2022, activists in Chiang Mai ended their daily protest for the right to bail. We speak to writer and translator Pakavadi Weerapaspong about the Stand Against Tyranny protests and its role in the pro-democracy movement.
Opinion
May 10, 2022
Plans for the upcoming Southeast Asia Games (SEA Games), scheduled to be held in Vietnam on 12-23 May after 4 months of delays, offer insight into how Southeast Asian nations will find their way back to normal after years of struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic.
May 3, 2022
We need to value and support the critical work of journalists countering the mis- and disinformation flooding our communications channels, especially during crises, conflicts, and elections. The good news is that when the media and civil society work together, they create a better information climate - and a healthier civic space - for us all.
Apr 20, 2022
HG's take on an ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and how the language can be miscommunicated so well.
Pick to Post
May 12, 2022
65 human rights organizations published an open letter addressed to US President Joe Biden on the new non-profit organization (NPO) bill, saying that the bill threatens Thai civil society and calling on the US to press the Thai authorities to immediately withdraw the bill.
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