<div> <p>The junta has invited student organizations from leading universities nationwide to voice opinions in a national reform forum while ironically continuing to abuse its power under martial law to intimidate and monitor student activists.</p> <p>According to the League of Liberal Thammasat for Democracy, an anti-coup student group based at Thammasat University, the junta has sent invitations to the rectors of several leading universities to invite student councils to join a national reform forum.</p> </div>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-989fc783-5c7a-e91a-7cc0-a37f984ee731">Community rights groups have urged the junta not to ignore community rights and to reconsider their forest protection policies after nearly 1,800 families, most of them in Thailand’s North and Northeast, have been severely affected.</span></p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8b41dc3a-5c53-5663-2681-92ebc5e2c7dc">The cabinet gave the green light to the Royal Thai Police proposal to provide the Special Branch Police with the authority to carry out searches, arrests, and detention of suspects. Meanwhile, the police aim to amend the Criminal Procedure Code to allow all police units to be able to intercept private communications for better crime control.&nbsp;</span></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 dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7ecce381-5600-15ad-d547-7ef61090ad66">Thai junta on Tuesday accused a Thai journalist living in self-exile of spreading rumours about the Thai King’s health, which caused the Stock Exchange of Thailand to plunge dramatically on Monday.&nbsp;</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7ecce381-5600-15ad-d547-7ef61090ad66">Maj Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd, Army and government spokesman, said the rumour about the King’s health was spread by Jom Petpradab, a veteran journalist now living in self-exile in the US. &nbsp;</span></p> </div>

<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>

<div>I am not your trained animal.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>I decided to write a record. With a perhaps unavoidable vulnerability, I write because I want to tell the outside world that each of us has a collar, although the lengths of our leashes vary. We become aware of the collars once we walk off the path mandated by those who force us to wear them.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Freedom … when we have lost it, then we feel its presence. </div>

<div> <div>The military on Friday filed a police complaint against a man for posting lèse majesté messages on Facebook, <a href="http://www.matichon.co.th/news_detail.php?newsid=1418379487">Matichon Online</a> reported.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Lt Col Burin Thongprapai of the military’s Judge Advocate General’s Office on Friday accused Jatsadakorn D., 24, of violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code or the lèse majesté law. </div></div>

<div>The Joint Declaration of Korean Civil Society &amp; Labor Organizations</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>There is nothing to expect from 2014 ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit attended by the major actors of military coup in Thailand.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>In the 2014 ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit held on 10 December in Busan, Korea, one of the participants is Prayut Chan-o-cha, who launched a military coup in May 2014 and became the new prime minister of the military junta. </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>

<p>In an unprecedented decision a military court has granted bail to a 50-year-old cook, accused of possessing illegal weapons after having denied her bail request four times.</p>

<div><span>High ranking military officer followed and “requested” to see a female member of Khon Kaen student activist group and continue to monitor the activities and whereabouts of the group members closely after the arrest of the five student activists flashing three-fingered in mid november.</span></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The student activist told Prachatai &nbsp;that the continuous intimidation from the authority stir up fear and greatly affected their studies during examination period. </div>