Thai police monitoring lèse majesté online

The Thai government has created a police taskforce within the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT) to monitor websites and identify those posting content that violates Thailand’s draconian lèse majesté law. Police General Somdej Khaokham, the head of the new Information Technology taskforce said the new taskforce included webmasters. The authorities have for several years been constantly updating equipment in order to track down those who post content regarded as offensive towards the monarchy. Read more here

Thai correspondents face jail after “undermining monarcy”

For the first time in its five-decade history, the whole board of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) has been accused of committing lèse majesté, a crime with a maximum jail sentence of 15 years. The board, includes three British nationals including the BBC’s Bangkok correspondent Jonathan Head, and three American nationals, including two working for Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. Read more here

Tesco libel case dismissed

A Thai court has dismissed a criminal defamation lawsuit filed by Tesco Lotus against former MP Jit Siratranont. The judgment said Jit’s comments on Tesco were “in good faith by way of fair comment on any person or thing subjected to public criticism”. The court also dismissed the claim of one billion baht damages by Tesco.

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