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WIKILEAKS: Thailand must stop imprisoning and censoring writers

rkamens's picture
Submitted by rkamens on Wed, 2009-01-21 23:08.

WIKILEAKS
Tue Jan 20 21:54:55 GMT 2009

"Thailand must stop imprisoning and censoring writers"

What do imprisoned Australian writer Harry Nicolaides, BBC correspondent Joathan Head, Thai Prof. Giles Ji Ungpakorn and social critic Sulak Silvaraska have in common?

They are some of the many detained or facing charges under Thailand's "lese Majesty" laws for criticizing the dealings of the monarchy.

Please sign and distribute the following demand on behalf of those imprisoned and charged:

We, the undersigned, oppose the use of lese Majeste in Thailand in order to prevent freedom of speech and academic freedom. We demand that the government cease all proceedings in lese Majeste cases.

The 19th September 2006 military coup in Thailand claimed "Royal legitimacy" in order to hide the authoritarian intentions of the military junta. Lese Majeste charges have not been used to protect "Thai Democracy under a Constitutional Monarchy" as claimed. The charges are used against people who criticized the coup and disagree with the present destruction of democracy. They are used to create a climate of fear and censorship.

One obvious case is that of Associate Professor Giles Ji Ungpakorn, from the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. He is facing Lese Majeste charges for writing a book--"A Coup for the Rich", which criticized the 2006 military coup.

Others who have been accused of Lese Majeste are former government minister Jakrapob Penkair, who asked a question at the Foreign Correspondent's Club in Bangkok about exactly what kind of monarchy we have in Thailand.

There is also the case of Chotisak Onsoong, a young student who failed to stand for the King's anthem in the cinema.

Apart from this there are the cases of Da Torpedo and Boonyuen Prasertying.

In addition to those who opposed the coup, Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in prison, and the BBC correspondent Jonathan Head and Thai social critic Sulak Sivaraksa are facing charges.

The latest person to be thrown into jail and refused bail is Suwicha Thakor, who is charged with Lese Majeste for surfing the Internet.

The Thai Minister of Justice has called for a blanket ban on reporting these cases in the Thai media. The main stream Thai media are obliging.

Thus we are seeing a medieval style witch hunt taking place in Thailand with "secret" trials in the courts.

The Justice Ministry is also refusing to publish figures of lese Majeste cases.

We call for the abolition of lese Majeste laws in Thailand and the defense of freedom and democracy.

Please send your full name to: wl-thailand@sunshinepress.org, Giles.LesseMajeste@gmail.com, ji.ungpakorn@gmail.com

See:
https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Imprisoned_Australian_author_Harry_Nic...
https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/A_Coup_for_the_Rich:_Thailand%27s_Poli...
https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/1%2C203_new_websites_censored_by_Thail...
https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Thailand

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