In light of the arrest of Prachatai Director Chiranuch Premchaiporn on March 6, Prachatai Editor Chuwat Rerksirisuk expresses his thanks to the many people who immediately showed their support.  They included Assoc Prof Dr Chantana Banpasirichote Wankaew who, without hesitation, offered to be the guarantor, academics and activists who, though virtually without any personal relationship with Chiranuch and Prachatai, showed up at the Police Crime Suppression Division, as well as fellow NGOs, the Students Federation of Thailand, alternative media outlets, the Netizen, and many others.

He also thanked the police officers who he said treated them in a polite and friendly manner; there were some verbal hassles, though nothing compared to previous arrests of voiceless ordinary people.

Within ten minutes of the arrest, Prachatai received phone calls one after another.  The news spread through SMS, radio, blogs, twitter, etc.  Some friends called from the other side of the planet after they heard the news from local radio stations.  Chuwat says this showed of force of new alternative media, and this should show the powers that be how the world has changed.

Chuwat says that readers' comments about the monarchy have endlessly changed in style and representation, with all kinds of techniques employed to avoid censorship.  When Prachatai filters certain terms, they just change their choice of words.

Who are they?  Chuwat does not know, but knows that they are many, and there is no subversive movement such as is imagined by the authorities and others.  The authorities' attempt to chase and block comments has proved futile and even worsened the situation.

Just a few years ago, before Sondhi Limthongkul started his royalist crusade, there were hardly any comments about the monarchy, and there was no need for censorship.  But, during the current hard times, comments of this kind have come pouring in, and at times almost all staff have to monitor the board.

The hard times come simply when the People's Alliance for Democracy makes its moves by using lèse majesté allegations as a tool, and the Democrat Party wants to defeat its political opponents by any means.

The passage that was used to justify Chiranuch's arrest was posted two days after the royally-sponsored cremation for the PAD member named Bow on Oct 13 last year.

Chuwat says the daily average of 300,000 page views, or almost 4 page views per second, is not an easy task to handle, but Prachatai, and Chiranuch in particular, has coordinated with other parties including MICT, NETIZEN and a network of volunteers, to set up a mechanism with acceptable censorship rules.

The police claimed that Prachatai had allowed the passage which they considered offensive to be shown for 20 days.  Chuwat wonders why the police, when deciphering the passage and considering it offensive, did not inform Prachatai, but instead kept watching it for 20 days.

Chuwat says what happened confirms that the lèse majesté and computer crime laws that give authorities sweeping powers are used as a tool for political suppression, not protection of the institution.

He says Thai society needs to discuss the lèse majesté issue.  The recent international scholars' call for reform of the law has been misrepresented by politicians and certain groups of people as a call for a republic.

Indeed, it is these sycophants who need what they call the ‘subversive movement', no matter whether it is real or not, for them to exploit for their own benefit, says Chuwat.