The Cabinet has approved a major amendment to the 24-year-old Official Information Act. While some flaws have been fixed, there is a new, huge loophole that allows the authorities more excuse not to disclose information to the public and even criminalizes disclosure.

In an era of political tension and ideological conflict, Thai society has reached a turning point. While the military government has paved its way to maintaining power, a new pro-democracy movement is trying to put rights and power back into the hands of the people.

The aridity of the Thung Kula Ronghai region’s alkaline soil is behind the Hom Mali rice strain’s popularity as a world-renowned export. The rice farmers and the special care they put into their production method have succeeded in turning their despair at the unpredictability of the rain cycle into assets. While quite a number of Isaan (northeastern Thai) people prefer sticky rice to regular rice for everyday consumption, the jasmine or ‘Hom Mali 105’ variety has been grown in Isaan for 70 years. How did the popularity of this particular rice variety come about?

In news reports less than 10 years ago, the new problem of PM2.5 dust was added to news items in the Thai media of forest fires and the problem of haze caused by forest fires and crop burning. This has led to a clear concrete policy shift, since it has a direct impact on the lives of the middle class in the country’s large cities, especially major centres like Bangkok and tourist spots like Chiang Mai Province. With an unidentifiable origin, smog, forest fires and PM2.5 have by implication become the same thing.

On the banks of the Mun River in northeastern Thailand, communities are still struggling with the impact of a dam that was built almost 30 years ago. After calls for the decommission of the dam were left unheeded, local activists are shifting the focus on the recovery of their livelihoods.