The military ordered the editor of anti-establishment socio-political Same Sky journal to delete a Facebook status which states the military’s attempt to censor the publishing house. This shows how serious the decline of basic human rights under the junta is in Thailand.
On Sunday afternoon, the military ordered Thanapol Eawsakul, the editor of Same Sky journal (or Fah Diew Kan in Thai), to delete the Facebook status on the conversation with Prajak Kongkirati, a renown political scientist from Thammasat University, at the annual Book Fair in central Bangkok.
Prajak, as a writer of political books published by SameSky, was at the Same Sky booth on Friday evening, waiting for his fans to come and talk about the book and ask for autographs.
It is the status of Same Sky publishing House, which states that the military mistook the fan meeting as political seminar and requested the book fair organizer to videotape and observed the event which the book fair organizer declined.
The deleted status also stated that the night before the opening of the fair, the military officials came to search the Fah Deaw Kan’s booth, claiming that some of the books have contents that could be deemed as defaming the revered Thai monarchy.
Same Sky on Sunday 3pm deleted the status and said it was forced to delete the status because the military felt “upset.”
A day after coup d’état in May , Thanapol was arrested at an Anti-coup protest in central Bangkok and detained for seven days by the military and was detained again for a second time from 6-9 July because he kept on posting opinion on Thai politics on his personal Facebook account.. He was among many anti-coup on the coup-maker’s summons list who were forced to sign a document stating that he will not participate in political activities or travel abroad without the permission of the junta’s NCPO.
Prajak volunteered to meet and have conversations with the readers of Fah Deaw Kan to talk about his books on student political movement in 1970s and the debate on elections and social movements in Thailand’s countryside. The academic was briefly detained on 18 September for his role as one of the speakers in the discussion about the end of dictatorships overseas at Thammasat University, which was forced to stop.
Since 2007, Prachatai English has been covering underreported issues in Thailand, especially about democratization and human rights, despite the risk and pressure from the law and the authorities. However, with only 2 full-time reporters and increasing annual operating costs, keeping our work going is a challenge. Your support will ensure we stay a professional media source and be able to expand our team to meet the challenges and deliver timely and in-depth reporting.
• Simple steps to support Prachatai English
1. Bank transfer to account “โครงการหนังสือพิมพ์อินเทอร์เน็ต ประชาไท” or “Prachatai Online Newspaper” 091-0-21689-4, Krungthai Bank
2. Or, Transfer money via Paypal, to e-mail address: [email protected], please leave a comment on the transaction as “For Prachatai English”