<div>The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the decision of the Appeal Court to accept Prachatai’s lawsuit against the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) for unfairly blocking the news website for almost nine months in the wake of the 2010 political violence.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The Supreme Court’s decision allows a civil case between Prachatai as plaintiff and MICT and the Finance Ministry as defendants to go to trial.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Five years ago, when the anti-establishment red-shirt supporters staged mass demonstrations in March-May 2010, th </div>

<div> <p>Prachatai on Friday celebrated, under martial law, its 10th anniversary as a non-profit alternative online media in Thailand.&nbsp;</p> <p>About 60 guests joined the event to celebrate its 10th anniversary on Friday night.&nbsp;</p> <p>The event was by invitation only and kept secret until Friday night for fear that the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) would force the cancellation of the event.&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8629/16378606136_d51f788afa_z.jpg" /></p> </div>

<div>The Economist emailed its subscribers in Thailand on Friday that it has decided not to distribute the 31 January issue in Thailand due to “sensitive content” which results in “potential risk to our distributors.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The Economist regularly stop distributing the printed versions in Thailand when the issues contain article about the royal family. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div>

<p dir="ltr">(New York, January 29, 2015) –<a href="http://hrw.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d8%2c46%3d9-%3eLCE593719%26SDG%3c90%3a.&amp;RE=MC&amp;RI=4432086&amp;Preview=False&amp;DistributionActionID=71405&amp;Action=Follow+Link"> Thailand</a>’s military government has severely repressed fundamental rights and freedoms since the May 22, 2014 coup, Human Rights Watch said today in its <a href="http://hrw.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d8%2c46%3d9-%3eLCE593719%26SDG%3c90%3a.&amp;RE=MC&amp;RI=4432086&amp;Preview=False&amp;DistributionActionID=71404&amp;Action=Follow+Link">World Re</a></p>

<p id="E26" qowt-divtype="para" qowt-eid="E26"><span id="E27" qowt-eid="E27">Thailand’s leading Internet freedom advocacy group has condemned the Thai authorit</span><span id="E28" qowt-eid="E28">ies</span><span id="E29" qowt-eid="E29"> for allowing Internet Service Providers (ISP</span><span id="E30" qowt-eid="E30">s</span><span id="E31" qowt-eid="E31">) to block </span><span id="E32" qowt-eid="E32">lèse majesté</span><span id="E33" qowt-eid="E33"> and other websites viewed as threats to national security the moment they see one. &nbsp; &nbsp;</span></p>

<div>The Thai authorities have revealed that they have invited representatives of Facebook in Thailand to discuss measures to prevent content defaming the Thai King on Facebook and how to have them prosecuted.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Thakorn Tantasith, Secretary-General of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), told reporters on Sunday that NBTC has invited the Thailand representatives of the social network company to a talk on Monday.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Thakorn said he wants Facebook head office to respect Thailand’s Article 112, or the lèse majesté law </div>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-98c232f0-93c1-f1c7-3880-b4d971c4f930">Google did not comply with any of the Thai authorities’ requests to remove YouTube videos deemed insulting to the Thai monarchy, or to reveal user data, according to the&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/">latest Google Transparency Report</a>, which is based on data from July to December 2013.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-086155de-5bb0-3cb1-93b1-f50fc22cdc6e">The Minister of Information and Communication Technology boasted that the Ministry has blocked around 1,200 alleged lèse majesté websites since the coup took place on 22 May, after the latest pressure from the junta.</span></p>

<div> <p>More than 100 farmers in a northeastern province face charges on land encroachment as a result of the junta's Return the Forest policy, after the military prohibited the farmers from holding a public discussion to voice their concerns to the military government.&nbsp;</p> <p>Laothai Nimnuan, the coordinator of Isan Farmers’ Federation of Thailand’s Northeast, told Prachatai that more than 60 military and police officers on Monday stormed into the venue planned for the public discussion on land rights and forced the organizers to cancel the meeting.</p> </div>

<p>Thailand’s military authorities must halt the alarming deterioration in respect for freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including ending the unprecedented use of the lèse-majesté law, Amnesty International said ahead of International Human Rights Day on 10 December.</p>

<div><span>Freedom House, a human rights advocacy group based in Washington D.C., on Thursday revealed its <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2014#.VIEzbDGsUf0">2014 Freedom on the Net</a> report, which categorizes <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2014/thailand">Thailand’s Internet</a> as ‘not free’, while categorizing&nbsp;<a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2014/myanmar">Myanmar Internet</a> as ‘partly free.’&nbsp;</span></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <div>This is a reversal from 2013, when Thailand was </div></div>

<div> <div>More than 100 academics, activists, and others on Thursday announced in a joint statement, “Down with martial law… power belongs to all the people.”&nbsp;</div> </div>