Suvarnabhumi Airport on alert for lese majeste suspects

[3NUMBAS]

call for the WitchFinder general to hunt them down and burn them at the stake with a crowd of Monty Pythons wearing false beards and talking with shrill womens voices .

' all i said was that piece of halibut was good enough for jehova '

[MGP]

.

This place is slowly becoming like USA. Big brother everywhere, no freedom of speech. Nada!

It's obvious that you have not seen the video. Its not a question of "freedom of speech". It was not just a comment that could be considered offensive, but a direct and clear threat to overthrown the head of state, accusing him of the troubles of the country, and a call to start a civil war. He even offered himself to shoot the first bullet.

That would be immediate cause for an arrest in any country, regardless of the level of freedom of speech.

Sorry but I have to disagree. Much as I abhor many radical stances and groups, they have the freedom to denounce the President of the U.S., call for the overthrow of the government, etc. that is protected speech in the U.S. The critical point would be directly threatening to do harm to the President ( or any individual for that matter), or physically taking up arms to overthrow the government. There is quite a difference, " lese majesty" could not float in the U.S. Hmmm, I know it might be impractical but why not move any bringing of charges under the royal household. Only the ruler being able to make the charge? My thought would be to remove these charges from such widespread use in Thai politics.

Try to make a threaten to genocide and mass-murder of the "elite" in your country, combined with the many other threatens that Ko-The has made, and see what happens.

Perhaps nothing will happen to you if you are not famous, but Ko-The is a very well known leader.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/10606562/Thai-red-shirts-leader-says-Its-time-to-get-rid-of-the-elite.html

Edited April 16, 2014 by MGP

[Acharn]

Should not the reporter and that foreign media also be charged for being an accessory?And should not youtube be banned in thailand if the refuse to take it down.

It's complicated.

They did block YouTube for a while back in 2009, I think it was. It's pretty futile. YouTube doesn't make a lot of money from showing clips in Thailand. They did remove the offending article, and I think the Democrats realized they had made things much worse by calling worldwide attention to it. That year the Ministry of Communications proudly announced blocking thousands of websites, too. Then maybe somebody realized that the huge number of unfavorable websites might be an indication that they were really unpopular, so they stopped announcing the number.

Lots of people don't think the lese majeste law is a good thing. The King himself spoke out against it in one of his birthday speeches, I don't remember the year. Think it was when they jailed the Nicolaides bloke. The law makes it impossible to discuss a couple of serious political topics.

They can't really charge foreign media. They have to have a defendant on hand to try in court. They have banned several journalists from entering the country, and they have done things like seizing all copies of a magazine or newspaper that may or may not violate the law. The law is terribly ambiguous, and it was designed that way to make it a useful weapon against political opponents. The law, by the way, is unique to Thailand; no other country in the world has a comparable law.

[Acharn]

Sorry but I have to disagree. Much as I abhor many radical stances and groups, they have the freedom to denounce the President of the U.S., call for the overthrow of the government, etc. that is protected speech in the U.S. The critical point would be directly threatening to do harm to the President ( or any individual for that matter), or physically taking up arms to overthrow the government. There is quite a difference, " lese majesty" could not float in the U.S. Hmmm, I know it might be impractical but why not move any bringing of charges under the royal household. Only the ruler being able to make the charge? My thought would be to remove these charges from such widespread use in Thai politics.

New here, aren't you? The Thai Constitution does not have a clause comparable to the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. I don't have a copy to hand, but I seem to remember that the freedom of speech clause includes a provision, "except in the case of national security or public morality." I haven't been keeping up, maybe other posters can say, did they ever rescind the 1944 Press Law? That provides for closing newspapers and magazines if they print unpleasing articles.

The suggestion of reforming who can prefer charges was discussed at some length back in 2009 when the corrupt Democrat/Abhisit/Suthep bovernment took over and the lese majeste law was being used almost every week. The proposal never went anywhere because the people behind PAD and PDRC like to be able to use deniable proxies.

[GinBoy2]

How this descended to a discussion of the US constitution an freedom of speech baffles me. Let it be said, if the UShad anything close to lese majeste, half the population at any given time would be waking up in the Big House. Now if only the White House had that Lese Majeste hotline....Hannity & most of the Fox News punditry would need to be booking tickets to the nearest country without an extradition treaty

[GinBoy2]

Maybe some of you don't understand the difference between privacy and freedom of speech. The difference is kiddies, whilst the US may well be monitoring you email, phone, farcebook etc, you can say what the Hell you like (except maybe blowing up something, or raping alter boys). Here in Thailand however, the very fact of discussing certain topics is a criminal offense and can and does end up with people spending time in jail. I don't think that happens in the US....although maybe a huge conspiracy is in effect and there is a SuperMax in Guantanamo somehow housing the offending freespeachers.

You guys are the best free entertainment on the web..except maybe for the chemtrail conspiracy theoristis

[Scott]

Off-topic posts deleted. Continued off-topic posting will result in warnings. Please stick to the topic.

[djjamie]

Having transversed the Thai-Laos friendship bridge regularly at Nong Kai and seeing how lax the security is I am pretty sure that Ko Tee will not go through Bangkok airports to escape. That is asking to be arrested.

[wwest5829]

Sorry but I have to disagree. Much as I abhor many radical stances and groups, they have the freedom to denounce the President of the U.S., call for the overthrow of the government, etc. that is protected speech in the U.S. The critical point would be directly threatening to do harm to the President ( or any individual for that matter), or physically taking up arms to overthrow the government. There is quite a difference, " lese majesty" could not float in the U.S. Hmmm, I know it might be impractical but why not move any bringing of charges under the royal household. Only the ruler being able to make the charge? My thought would be to remove these charges from such widespread use in Thai politics.

New here, aren't you? The Thai Constitution does not have a clause comparable to the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. I don't have a copy to hand, but I seem to remember that the freedom of speech clause includes a provision, "except in the case of national security or public morality." I haven't been keeping up, maybe other posters can say, did they ever rescind the 1944 Press Law? That provides for closing newspapers and magazines if they print unpleasing articles.

The suggestion of reforming who can prefer charges was discussed at some length back in 2009 when the corrupt Democrat/Abhisit/Suthep bovernment took over and the lese majeste law was being used almost every week. The proposal never went anywhere because the people behind PAD and PDRC like to be able to use deniable proxies.

Yes, fairly new as I retired here in July 2011. Thanks for explaining the 2009 happenings. It does confirm my belief that the "lese majeste" charges have been used politically for some time. To me, the political use of this in general politics is a disrespect of the monarchy. As to the U.S. 1944 press regulations in war time, I don't know if they or the Alien & Sedition acts of Jefferson's time are still enforceable. Guess I have been most concerned with the "Patriot Act" and it's over reaching in the name of security. We probably have some common ground. Just as an aside, while my reading of Thai history and visits only started seriously in 2009, I am more a student of U.S. and European general history.

[kimamey]

Sorry but I have to disagree. Much as I abhor many radical stances and groups, they have the freedom to denounce the President of the U.S., call for the overthrow of the government, etc. that is protected speech in the U.S. The critical point would be directly threatening to do harm to the President ( or any individual for that matter), or physically taking up arms to overthrow the government. There is quite a difference, " lese majesty" could not float in the U.S. Hmmm, I know it might be impractical but why not move any bringing of charges under the royal household. Only the ruler being able to make the charge? My thought would be to remove these charges from such widespread use in Thai politics.

New here, aren't you? The Thai Constitution does not have a clause comparable to the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. I don't have a copy to hand, but I seem to remember that the freedom of speech clause includes a provision, "except in the case of national security or public morality." I haven't been keeping up, maybe other posters can say, did they ever rescind the 1944 Press Law? That provides for closing newspapers and magazines if they print unpleasing articles.

The suggestion of reforming who can prefer charges was discussed at some length back in 2009 when the corrupt Democrat/Abhisit/Suthep bovernment took over and the lese majeste law was being used almost every week. The proposal never went anywhere because the people behind PAD and PDRC like to be able to use deniable proxies.

I must say I'm against the LM laws as well. There is a similar law in Holland I think but never used. I dislike the use of the king for political means as is done by PAD and some Democrats.I once mentioned the increase in cases under the Dems and someone said it wasn't them that caused that. I can't remember who did. The army maybe.

[GinBoy2]

I must say I'm against the LM laws as well. There is a similar law in Holland I think but never used. I dislike the use of the king for political means as is done by PAD and some Democrats.I once mentioned the increase in cases under the Dems and someone said it wasn't them that caused that. I can't remember who did. The army maybe.

Actually if you wiki Lese Majeste, the list of European countries is quite extensive; Netherlands, Spain, Denmark & Norway. Then add in the RoW, usual suspects, Kuwait, Jordon, Morocco & Malaysia it adds adds to quite a chunk of humanity which is at least 'technically' constrained by a lese majeste law. Curiously, or informatively (you can chose which) , the section discussing Thailand dwarfs all the rest

[chotthee]

Link to clip removed.

Public Warning

You can yourself be prosecuted for Lease Majesty for distributing links to the clip..

What about Chatwadee Rose Amornpat FB?

[3NUMBAS]

have they goon squads checking all persons as they come and go ?

'look theres one'' he looks suspicious '

anyone who name is Les

a ridiculous charade from the dark ages of man

[bangon04]

have they goon squads checking all persons as they come and go ?

'look theres one'' he looks suspicious '

anyone who name is Les

a ridiculous charade from the dark ages of man

" lest any of the suspects attempts to enter and depart from the airport"

Given the ridiculous mountain of departure and arrival cards they collect, all stamped with the entry and exit stamps, the immigration computer system which may or not work, not to mention the airlines computerised records, it seems the immigration service is simply incapable of knowing which prominent members of Thai political class have left the country or not. As a previous poster pointed out, what is the use of putting the main airport "on alert" if anyone can simply sneak out over the border somewhere else?

[Bangmod]

Should not the reporter and that foreign media also be charged for being an accessory?And should not youtube be banned in thailand if the refuse to take it down.

So you want the same what the Turkish PM wants, ban all social media??

Should then Thai Visa also be banned to report about it??

Should we better re-built the Berlin wall??

Should the VC start to digg their tunnels in Vietnam??

Should we instal Thaksin as PM in exile??

Should we set up a statue for Adolf and reopen all concentration camps in Europe??

No I hope not, so rethink your statement...