Thailand

ARTICLE 19 calls on the Thai government to repeal criminal defamation provisions in favour of civil law and other measures.

Human Rights Watch said authorities should quash the sentence and cease prosecuting other cases under the lese majeste law.

Poet, human rights lawyer and activist Arnon Nampha was convicted of royal defamation for calling for monarchy reform in a public rally in October 2020.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said that Vietnam has a history of targeting journalists living in exile.

The decree empowers officers of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society to issue takedown orders for content that violates the Computer Crime Act.

ARTICLE 19’s new report, ‘Thailand: Denying the demand for democracy’ finds that authorities have used the country’s Public Assembly Act and Covid-19 state of emergency regulations as pretexts to restrict and repress pro-democracy protests.

ARTICLE 19 and its partners in civil society have urged Thai authorities to stop all persecution under the Emergency Decree.

Human Rights Watch noted that the number of lese majeste cases in Thailand has significantly increased in the past year.

Civil society groups have sent a letter to the government of Thailand expressing concern regarding the Draft Act on the Operations of Not-for Profit Organizations B.E… (‘Draft Act’) for containing provisions that could potentially curtail the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and other human rights.

Six individuals who joined a protest in November 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand were charged with sedition and insulting the monarchy.

Thirteen organizations have written a letter to the Thailand government expressing concern about the use of excessive force by the police and other security forces against protesters and the intensified harassment and detention of pro-democracy leaders.

Media groups in Thailand are opposing a new government regulation that prohibits any supposed distortion of information that causes misunderstanding during an emergency situation. They warned that this new measure can be used to censor media coverage and undermine freedom of expression.

ARTICLE 19 said the proposed new regulations would add to a number of existing mechanisms to monitor and punish vaguely defined ‘fake news’.

The Thai Lawyers for Human Rights has reported that at least 41 children have been charged for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly since the youth-led pro-democracy rallies started in July 2020.