<div>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. </div>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-33531540-7d2c-9933-2060-2c511739b6c7">Press freedom in Thailand has fallen on the Reporters Without Borders index from a ranking of 130 in 2014 to 134 in 2015. Thailand still remains the second best among the ten members of the ASEAN.</span></p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a0ce0b52-7136-9370-b12c-3edcd75b46d4">The Prevention and Suppression of Temptations to Dangerous Behaviors which will ban specific kinds of pornography in a bid to increase efficiency in suppression, potentially paves way for a ban of group sex, and BDSM, in the name of public morals. The bill also poses a great threat to media freedom as it not only broadly defines a wide range of media content deemed inappropriate, it also adopts the notorious article of the Computer Crime Act which indiscriminately holds internet intermediaries liable for all pornographic/violent materials without safe harbour.</span></p> <p></p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-0b43c8fe-6c7c-bb72-37a9-df8cfe65773c">It was the artist Tran Luong and a red scarf. It does not take more to make the Vietnamese police raid the German cultural center in Hanoi. An interrupted installation in a space that is actually protected by diplomacy. I saw Tran Luong’s performance in full, uninterrupted, in Berlin, far away from the country he was from my interpretation commenting on by throwing a red scarf around, playing cheerfully with until the scarf tied his hands behind the back and he was unable to move.</span></p>

<div>Thai constitutional drafters, under the military regime, is including regulations on ‘hate speech’ in the new constitutional draft for the first time in Thai law.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Kamnoon Sidhisaman, the spokesperson of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), announced the results of the CDC meeting on freedom of expression that on top of mentioning vaguely that freedom of expression is guaranteed with the limitations of respect towards the rights of others, the committee has included ‘hate speech’ into the new draft constitution.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Kamnoon said </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>

<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>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>

<div><span>Khon Kaen student activists arrested for <a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/4506">giving three-fingered salute at the head of the junta</a> reported intimidations they received after their release to the United Nations officers in Bangkok. </span></div>

<p>(New York, November 25, 2014) – Thailand’s military government is severely repressing fundamental rights and freedoms six months after its May 22, 2014 coup, Human Rights Watch said today. The ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has shown no genuine signs of restoring democratic civilian rule.<br /></p>