The conflict today is partly the result of the atrocious media, esp TV. The government's "interference" is not the only reason to blame. It is bad enough that the government have the full control of one TV channel with outcries only from a fraction of media professionals and none from media professional bodies. But the media professionals at major newspapers and other TV channels including the ThaiPBS do it out of their own biases and horrible lack of professionalism. The government may take some minutes to tell a lie live on air.

In response to Awzar Thi's criticism of human rights advocates in Thailand, Danthong Breen, chairman of the Union for Civil Liberty, a leading human rights organization based in Bangkok, has sent an email to a group of activists.  Prachatai sees this as a valuable contribution to the debate on the roles of human rights activists in Thailand, and has translated and published his email on Prachatai (Thai version) with the kind permission of Mr Breen.  Here is his email and a response from Thongchai Winichakul, Thai academic at the University of Wisconsin in the US.

BANGKOK, Aug 31 (IPS) - Thailand’s draconian lese majeste law is steadily emerging as a testing ground for the principles that renowned international human rights lobbies stand for.

The proposed amendment to the lese majeste law is careless and unwise. The existing lese majeste law is already problematic in many respects.