<p>For our 2021 Person of the Year, Prachatai has chosen Worawan Sae-aung,&nbsp;an elderly fruit vendor and regular protest-goer,&nbsp;for her courage in standing up against the authorities and her relentless support of the pro-democracy movement.</p>

<p>After a failed attempt a decade ago to amend or abolish the section of the Criminal Code that punishes people for defaming, insulting or threatening members of the monarchy, new calls have emerged questioning the monarch&rsquo;s role in Thai democracy and have faced legal harassment.</p>

<p>A year and a half after the protest at the Democracy Monument on 18 July 2020, the youth-led protests have expanded into a popular movement including issues from labour rights and gender equality to religious reform and monarchy reform.</p>

<p>In Thailand, efforts to control Aedes mosquitoes and dengue fever have produced uneven results.&nbsp;Over the past few decades, the toll of the disease has diminished in some areas. In others, mosquito-borne infections remain high. To improve the situation, control measures are being reconsidered.</p>

<p>Despite the Constitutional Court&#39;s ruling that only allowing marriage registration to heterosexual couple does not go against the Constitution, Thai activists are moving forward in their fight for marriage equality.&nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span style="color:black"><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:&quot;TH SarabunPSK&quot;,sans-serif">The rainy season comes and goes, leaving behind hundreds of thousands dengue fever patients. Each year, hundreds die of the disease. The recurring outbreak was bad enough before. Now mosquitoes have developed improved resistance to control measures, creating a new challenge for public health officials.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>

<p>An interview of a lawyer, a severely beaten protester and an arrested citizen media over what happened in one of the most brutal night raid at Din Daeng Intersection.</p>

<p>When the Mekong River changes,&nbsp; a way of life does too. Listen to the reflections of two generations of &ldquo;Mekong people&rdquo; from Pho Sai District, Ubon Ratchathani Province, who are facing dead plants, disappearing fish, falling incomes, and diminished tourism &ndash;&nbsp;because of upstream dams in China.</p>

<p>Journalists in Thailand continue to face regular physical threats, lawsuits, and harassments from the authorities, most of which are not investigated and&nbsp;no perpetrator has been brought to justice.&nbsp;On the occasion of the&nbsp;International Day to End&nbsp;Impunity for&nbsp;Crimes against Journalists, Prachatai presents a report on the threats faced by journalists in Thailand and the impact of such threat on the journalists themselves and on communication rights.&nbsp;</p>

<p>An escalation of symbolic actions by pro-democracy protesters took place after the repeated use of force against protesters by the police and legal charges against its leading figures. But when it comes to burning portraits of the King, the state uses the royal defamation law to handle the problem.</p>

<p>For a third year, Prachatai has opened all budget documents to add up all the expenses related to the monarchy that are scattered among various agencies.</p>

<p>Since 2017, King Rama X has issued at least 112 royal edicts appointing and demoting royal officials and the royal consort, bestowing royal decorations, appointing monks to the Sangha Supreme Council and expressing political views, which raises questions over accountability under the King Can Do No Wrong principle.</p>