they're all charged with LESE MAJESTE
nobody
Thai press club's board charged with lese majeste
New York, July 2, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists rejects
the politically motivated lese majeste charges filed on Tuesday by a
private citizen against board members of the Foreign Correspondents
Club of Thailand (FCCT). Violations of lese majeste laws are a
criminal offense in Thailand, punishable by three to 15 years in
prison.
The charges were filed by Laksana Kornsilpa, a translator and a
sympathizer of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest
movement that paved the way for the military ouster of former Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The group seized Bangkok's international
airport for more than one week last November.
According to local press reports, Laksana claimed in her complaint
that the FCCT violated Thailand's lese majeste laws by selling DVD
copies of a speech made there in 2007 by former journalist, government
spokesman, and United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship protest
group co-leader Jakrapob Penkair. His speech, in part, touched on the
monarchy. The FCCT released a public statement saying only that it
would cooperate with the police inquiry.
The FCCT's board is composed of representatives from several major
international news organizations, including Inter Press Service
correspondent and FCCT President Marwaan Macan-Markar, BBC
correspondent Jonathan Head, Wall Street Journal reporter Patrick
Barta, Bloomberg's Daniel Ten Kate, Channel News Asia's Anasuya
Sanyal, Business Times' Greg Lowe and The Straits Times' Nirmal Ghosh.
The complaint also named local Thai PBS television reporter Karuna
Buakamsri, and the Bangkok-based Nation's Jim Pollard.
"We reject these frivolous charges against the FCCT, which are clearly
aimed at undermining press freedom in Thailand," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's
Asia program coordinator. "Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's
government has acknowledged that lese majeste laws are often abused
for political purposes and we strongly encourage him to reform these
laws to protect press freedom as outlined in the 2007 constitution."
Thai law allows any citizen to bring complaints against anyone they
believe has insulted the country's monarchy. The charges brought
against the FCCT are the latest in a flurry of politicized accusations
and counter-accusations that have become part and parcel of Thailand's
grinding political conflict between pro- and anti-Thaksin groups. They
have severely undermined freedom of expression.
Jakrapob, now in self-imposed exile for his anti-government protest
activities, faces lese majeste charges over comments he made during
his FCCT presentation. Similarly, BBC correspondent Jonathan Head
currently faces three different counts of lese majeste, all filed by
the same senior Thai police official, for his public comments and
reports that have touched on the monarchy.
The FCCT and its members have come under growing official harassment.
Police officials last December requested a DVD recording of an FCCT
event titled "The State of Politics and the Way Forward for Thailand"
at which members of a pro-Thaksin group made reference to Head's
reporting.
The FCCT announced on December 24 that it was suspending sales of that
particular event's recording, saying in a statement that "DVD
recordings of Club events had been misused by certain individuals with
their own agendas."
Thai authorities have also cracked down in recent months on thousands
of Web sites for posting materials deemed by authorities as offensive
to the monarchy.
July 2, 2009 3:45 PM ET | Permalink
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