<p>As Princess Bajrakitiyabha remains hospitalised on Friday, attention on social media is turning to her status as the presumed heiress to the throne &ndash; a role never formally acknowledged that is taken seriously by many analysts.</p>

<p>The Director of the Isra Institute has filed a defamation complaint against a well-known Scottish journalist over sexual harassment allegation.</p> <p>The Isra Institute on 16 September 2017 issued&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/isranewsfanpage/photos/a.690863000942040.1073741840.480564141971928/1822210514473944/?type=3&amp;theater">a public statement</a>&nbsp;that Prasong Lertratanawisute, its director, had filed a complaint with the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) against Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a former Bangkok-based Scottish journalist wanted for lèse majesté.</p>

<p>On a Saturday night in mid-September 2013 I was sat at table in a deserted restaurant in an exclusive beachside resort in Phuket. My companions were graduate students and researchers from Chulalongkorn University and Japan’s prestigious Kyoto University.</p>

<div>Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a Thai government ban, imposed yesterday, on any online contact or interaction with three prominent critics of the regime – a foreign journalist and two academics – and urges all Facebook users beyond the government’s reach to share content from the Facebook accounts of these three critics. The ban’s three targets are Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a well-known Scottish journalist who used to be based in Bangkok, and Thai academics Somsak Jeamteerasakul and Pavin Chachavalpongpun. </div>

<p>Responding to a government warning that anyone who follows, contacts, or shares posts online with three prominent critics - historian Somsak Jeamteerasakul, journalist and author Andrew MacGregor Marshall, and former diplomat Pavin Chachavalpongpun - will be prosecuted under the Computer Crimes Act, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific Josef Benedict said:</p>

<p>The Thai police have intimidated the family <del cite="mailto:Alec%20Bamford" datetime="2017-01-21T18:49">of the wife </del>of a former Bangkok-based British journalist wanted for lèse majesté.</p>

<div>A Thai royalist on Tuesday filed a lèse majesté complaint against Andrew McGregor Marshall , former Reuters journalist, for writing books and articles allegedly defaming the King.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><span>According to the ultra-royalist&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.chaoprayanews.com/2014/12/09/%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%98%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%8A%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%88%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A1/">Chaopraya News</a><span>&nbsp;</span><span p> </span></div>

<div>Andrew MacGregor Marshall recently commented, including the clause, “…what is going on in contemporary Thailand.” It was a good citation to the upheaval taking place at various levels in Thai society as a result of a maturing – albeit hardly mature in the classical sense – segment of Thai society that recognizes the fallacies of the past and the futility of dogmatism. Many of this new group are activists, publicly denouncing what they see as unjust laws and social values not so much out of being “bad Thais” as their detractors would claim but more so being people of frustrated conscience and ideals who have seen the hypocrisy and foolhardiness in established values that promote cyborg allegiance.&nbsp;</div> <p></p>

<p>Video clip of panel discussion on the lese majeste law held on 7 June in Bangkok with speakers including Benedict Anderson,&nbsp; Pravit Rojanaphruk, Andrew MacGregor Marshall (via Skype), and Sulak Sivaraksa, moderated by Lisa Gardner.</p>