freedom of expression
16 Sep 2015
The Thai junta has released an anti-junta journalist and Pheu Thai politicians detained incommunicado.
At 4 pm on Tuesday, 15 September 2015, the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) released Pravit Rojanaphruk, 48, an anti-junta journalist of the the Nation news agency, from the 1st Army Region Base in Bangkok after he was detained incommunicado for two days.
13 Sep 2015
Thai police officers detained an elderly writer after he made comments about the new constitutional draft, which they said might affect national security.
Police officers on Saturday afternoon, 12 September 2015, detained a 70-year-old independent writer known by his penname Bundit Aneeya, after he made suggestions at a seminar on the new constitution drafting process at Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus, Bangkok.
9 Sep 2015
Despite the euphoria surrounding the upcoming national election in November 2015, human rights abuses and violations are still prevalent in Myanmar with no clear sign of improvement.
Representatives from many local civil society organisations (CSOs) in Myanmar took the floor at a Lecture organized by UPR Info and the Burma-Myanmar UPR Forum, at Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus, Bangkok, on Wednesday morning, 9 September 2015, to present on the human rights situation in Myanmar and in the borders of Thailand/Myanmar.
8 Sep 2015
The Thai authorities contacted a family of an anti-junta activist in northern Thailand after his activist group urged the junta to step down when the 2015 charter draft was rejected.
Pongnarin Nonkam, a member of New Democracy Movement (NDM), a well known anti-junta activist group, who is a law student from Ramkhamhaeng University, told Prachatai that on Monday afternoon, 7 September 2015, the Thai authorities contacted his parents and asked about his and his family’s personal details.
7 Sep 2015
Thai Military and police officers stormed into a seminar about a Thai historical figure and forced the organisers to cancel the event, saying that it might be illegal under the volatile political situation.
According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), many police and military officers in plainclothes on Sunday, 6 September 2015, came to Santhi Prachatham Library of Satienkoset-Nakaprateep Foundation in central Bangkok and forced a seminar about the life of Narin Phasit, 1874-1950, to be aborted.
8 Jun 2015
UN special rapporteurs have sent a letter to the Thai government, expressing grave concerns over the use of Article 112 or the lèse majesté law.
The letter, sent to the Thai government on 8 December 2014, named 21 suspects or defendants or convicts under the lèse majesté law and Article 14 of the Computer Crime Act.
The 21 are:
Khantawut B,
Tanat Thanawatcharanon, aka Tom Dundee,
Sira
3 Jun 2015
Since the absolute monarchy was abolished in Thailand in 1932, over a dozen successful military coups have taken place in our country.
21 May 2015
On 22 May 2014, the military clique in the name of “National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)” seized power from the Yingluck Shinawatra government citing as its pretext the incessant violence which has led to massive casualties among people and damage to properties, hence the seizure of the power to stem the destructive causes.
8 May 2015
Last week, Freedom House, the Washington, DC based human rights organization, released its annual report Freedom of the Press 2015, a damning assessment in the decline of global media freedoms. Around the world journalists were subject to an increasing battery of national security laws, sedition charges, censorship, arrest, intimidation and the extrajudicial killing of journalists.
8 May 2015
The discovery of a remote camp containing the graves of what are thought to be the remains of human rights has sent shockwaves throughout the nation and beyond. The site contained 32 shallow graves but human rights remains have been found in only 26, indicating that it was expected that there would be more victims.
28 Feb 2015
This week, Patiwat S. was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for lèse majesté because of his role in the play, “The Wolf Bride.” Patiwat is the most recent student to have been imprisoned under the law, and has been an advocate for Isaan peoples’ rights and democracy for years.
On Monday, the criminal court sentenced Khon Kaen University student Patiwat S. and activist Pornthip M. to five years in jail for their involvement in a satirical play that was deemed “damaging to the monarchy.” The court reduced the sentence by half for their admission of guilt.
26 Feb 2015
On 23 February 2015 student activists Patiwat S., 23, and Pornthip M. (f), 26, were each sentenced to two and a half years in prison for violating Thailand’s “lèse-majesté” law. The charge of “lèse-majesté” criminalises alleged insult of the monarchy under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, and is commonly used to silence peaceful dissent. According to reports, there has been a considerable rise in arrests, trials and sentences relating to lèse majesté cases since the military coup of 22 May 2014. The case against Patiwat S.
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