On February 5 an unidentified man was arrested for comments he posted to a webboard. His house was searched, his computer confiscated as evidence, his family frightened, and friends panicked. These are ordinary people who express opinions that the authorities consider dangerous, and the mainstream media never allows.  The Internet is their only outlet.

On 22 Jan, Kittichai Charnchoengsilpakul, Da Torpedo’s brother, together with some 30 activists, red shirts and monks, presented a petition to the Corrections Department, requesting the agency to provide medical treatment for Daranee.

BANGKOK, Jan 24 (TNA) -- Defending his government over recent charges by New York-based Human Rights Watch that Thailand violated several human rights principles last year, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Sunday that some information in the NGO’s report might contain inaccuracies. 

Reading the latest and possibly last letter from jail from convicted lese majeste and computer crime law offender Suwicha Thakor dated January first 2010 was a sobering experience. The letter reflects Suwicha's lack of faith on Thai mainstream media which do not care to put his side of the story to the public. So instead, Suwicha only mentioned in his Thai-language letter, the left-leaning not-for-profit prachatai.com online newspaper which duly published his letter on Wednesday.

This was a  busy week on the frontlines of personal freedom, particularly in regards to free speech. Tying together several key events were government’s increasingly sophisticated restrictions on our human rights, and the efforts to push them back. For obvious reasons, freedom of speech is dear to this writer, and this week’s post addresses the past week’s developments.

Google's promise to end its self-censorship in China, a daring response to a Chinese cyber attack, may have brought the shine back to the search giant's "Don't Be Evil" ethos. But Google is still blocking certain content in other countries at the demand of their governments. The company won't comment on whether it plans to change those censorship schemes.

Reiterating its appeal to King Bhumibol Adulyadej to pardon nine bloggers (see the 4 December press release: http://www.rsf.org/King-asked-to-pardon-Internet.html), Reporters Without Borders today published a letter written by one of the jailed bloggers, Suwicha Thakor, from prison.

The Defence Minister has ordered all military units to monitor and subdue any subversive actions against the monarchy in cyber space and at political rallies.  But months before this order, Provincial Army ROTC Training Centre 33, based in Chiang Mai, had already had high school students vow their loyalty on YouTube, and recently set up a web service for any citizen to report offensive websites.

On 12 January 2010, the Thai News Agency reported that the Prime Minister ordered the establishment of an Advisory Committee on National Security Cases Involving the Monarchy, with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice as chair. The Committee has the responsibility of advising the police, DSI and ICT Ministry on the careful, appropriate and fair conduct of lèse majesté cases

Thailand should reverse its recent backward slide in respect for freedom of expression, as illustrated by the sharp increase over the past ten months in cases under the lese majeste law.

Readers have sent e-mails to Smart Buy magazine, criticizing a column written by a dentist who talks of Da Torpedo’s molar abscess as bad karma resulting from speaking ill of the monarchy.

Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul was visited by her brother and a group of activists on the last day of the year allowed by the prison for visiting inmates.

On 2 Dec, the Social Move group of activists visited Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul at Khlong Prem Prison.  They found her still active in discussing political issues, despite the fact that inmates are supposed to be kept away from politics through the prison’s various means of censorship.  She was very happy to have received letters from sympathizers in many countries.  

Reporters Without Borders has written to King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the eve of his birthday on 5 December asking him to pardon Thai Internet users who are in jail or who are being prosecuted in connection with the dissident views they allegedly expressed online.

In recent days police in Thailand arrested and charged another person over causing a decline in the stock market by spreading rumours through the Internet about the king's health. 

The legal tools that the authorities abuse to restrict free expression in Thailand are the 2007 Computer Crime Act and the lese majeste law (section 112 of the criminal code), which mainly targets Internet users. Harassment and intimidation are constantly employed to dissuade Internet users from freely expressing their views.

The Appeal Court has reduced Boonyuen Prasertying’s sentence to 2 years, after she appealed the original 6-year term.  She is to be released in August 2010.

The article was originally written under the request of Fah Diew Kan Magazine in which the Thai-translated version will appear on its latest edition. Pravit Rojanaphruk is currently a Katherine Fanning Fellow for Journalism and Democracy at Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio.

Thai Netizen Network demands Thai authorities to make clarification on the recent arrests of internet users, including Nat Sattayapornpisut in whose case the authorities are asked to disclose the means of accessing e-mail accounts and the law that entitled them to do so, 'since this matter may have violated people’s right to privacy and freedom to communicate'.

Three Internet users have been arrested in the past four days for posting articles blaming King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s poor health for last month’s fall in the Bangkok stock exchange. They have been charged under article 14 of the Computer Crimes Act 2007 with endangering national security by spreading false rumours about the king’s health.