Former culture minister Itthiphol Khunpluem faces an arrest warrant after failing to appear in court to defend himself against accusations of malfeasance from when he was the mayor of Pattaya’ in 2008. A news source reports that he has flown to a neighbouring country.

A group of activists staged a protest at the Ministry of Culture on Sunday (6 August) to demand that Senator and poet Naowarat Pongpaiboon be removed from his position as a national artist for abstaining during the vote for Prime Minister.

<p>Writer Suchart Sawatsri filed a lawsuit on Thursday (14 October) against the National Culture Commission (NCC) and the Ministry of Culture for stripping him of his national artist status, reportedly due to social media posts he made about the monarchy</p>

<div> <div> <div>‘The winners write history,’ said many Thai netizens last week in criticisms of a Thai history textbook which praises the military government for establishing “true democracy” in Thailand.</div> <div> </div> <div>“Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha as Prime Minister has carried out a policy of reforming the country, reforming politics to be truly a democracy, eliminating corruption and using moral principles to lead the country to be truly a democracy.”</div> <div> </div> <div>This is a direct quote from page 195 of “History of the Thai Nation,” a history textbook published by the Mini </div></div></div>

<p>After five years of legal struggle, a court has confirmed a ban on a film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’, which touches on sensitive historical topics.</p> <p>On 11 August 2017, the Administrative Court maintained a ban on ‘Shakespeare Must Die’, a political film with references to the 6 October 1976 student massacre and the political violence during the red shirt demonstrations in 2009.</p> <p>The leading character of the movie, called ‘Dear Leader’, is believed to be based on the controversial former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<div>More than sixty thousand Thais have signed a petition opposing the Culture Ministry's attempt to ban a tourist ad that contains characters from the Ramayana, part of the national literary heritage.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 22 September 2016, Jatuporn Rattanawaraha, a Thai national artist in the dramatic arts -- khon -- category, said that the music video titled “Thais tour in Thailand: Let’s have fun!” was inappropriate and would destroy Thailand’s national culture,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bangkokbiznews.com/news/detail/719195">reported</a> Bangkok Business.</div> <div>&nbsp; </div>

<p>The Thai authorities have drafted a master plan to promote ‘morality’ based on sufficiency, honesty, and responsibility as a national programme. &nbsp;</p> <p>According to Daily News, Gen Thanasak Patimaprakorn, Deputy Prime Minister and head of the National Committee to Promote Morality established under the Ministry of Culture, on Monday, 2 November 2015, revealed that the Committee approved a master plan to promote morality as a national programme at its first meeting.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Following the controversial<a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/4315">&nbsp;12 nationalistic Thai values</a>&nbsp;introduced in the aftermath of the 2014 coup d’état and the construction of a theme park with grandiose monuments of ancient kings, the Thai junta has now published its latest version of Thai history, which many historians view as an attempt to legitimize military rule via a narrow nationalistic history.</p> <p></p>

<p>Thailand’s Ministry of Culture has banned a horror film centring on the life of a teenage monk after the movie caused a stir among Buddhist hardliners who alleged that the film insults Buddhism.</p> <p>On Monday, 12 October 2015, Sahamongkol Film International, a Thai film production company,&nbsp;sent out a <a href="https://twitter.com/Sahamongkolfilm/status/653521351135723520">tweet </a>to inform the public that it has to postpone screening the film ‘Abat’ (‘offense’ in the Pali language, the sacred language of Theravada Buddhism).</p>

<p dir="ltr">Conservative Buddhist organisations in Thailand calls on the authorities to review a horror movie about a young novice, saying that the film insults Buddhism and Buddhist monks.</p>

<p>Thai cultural officials are becoming concerned at the proliferation on the internet of ‘underblurb selfies’ posted by politicians in an attempt to make themselves attractive to voters.&nbsp;</p>