With the conspicuous absence of input from the US, representatives of a dozen countries including France, Germany, the UK and Australia have recommended that the Thai government amend the lese majeste law to bring the country's level of freedom of expression in line with international standards.

There are stark differences between a government report on violence in the deep South and reports submitted by non-government groups for the first-ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) that Thailand will face, at the United Nations' Human Rights Council in Geneva tomorrow.

Two weeks ago, on September 19, as Thailand marked the fifth anniversary of the coup that ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra from power, a group of academics, known as the Nitirat group, called a press conference to call for the expunging of all records and judicial decisions originating from the 2006 coup, the drafting of a new charter, as well as the amendment of the controversial lese majeste law by making it less draconian.

What did you do five years ago when you heard that another military coup was being staged? Did you support it or were you against it? Or did you just sit by idly?

The not-for-profit prachatai.com online newspaper has come under ferocious accusations of late, to wit that the left-leaning newspaper is actually a fake and an agent of the "neo-imperialist" United States, to use the word of its accuser, who comes by the name of Tony Cartalucci.