<div>[UPDATE] After anti-coup protesters pressured military officers and tried to negotiate for the release of a male protester wearing a white T-shirt, the military released the man around 7 p.m. on Saturday. The man was detained for about 15 minutes.&nbsp;</div> <div> </div>

<div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <div>On Saturday at 11am, approximately 200 anti-coup demonstrators gathered to protest against the military coup d'etat in front of Major Cineplex on Ratchayothin Road. Reportedly, a company of soldiers were deployed to maintain law and order. &nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The situation became a bit chaotic when anti-coup protesters saw Porntipa Supattanakul, aka Fah Porntipa, a royalist who filed a lese majeste complaint against Saran Chuichai, aka Aum Neko, a transgender student activist, near the protest site. </div></div></div>

<div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 22 May 2014, a group of persons who call themselves the National Order Maintenance Council (NOMC) fomented a coup and seized power from the caretaker government. They cited the need to prevent violence arising from political conflict as the primary reasons for their actions. We condemn this action for the following significant reasons:</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>1. A coup is a reduction of rights and liberties. A coup is a devaluation of the intelligence, dignity, and the political learning process of citizens in a democracy.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>2. </div>

<div>The Facebook page of the National Peace and Order Maintenance Council (NPOMC) has been stormed by song requests from Thai Internet users who have been frustrated by Thai nationalist right-wing songs from WWI, WWII and the Cold War era, played repeatedly when all broadcast media were ordered to stop broadcasting. &nbsp;</div> <div> </div>

<div> <div>About 50 people, led by the Assembly for the Defence of Democracy (AFDD), a group of pro-electoral democracy academics, organized an anti-martial law activity on Thursday evening, which suddenly turned into an anti-coup event after learning that the military had seized power at 5 pm on Thursday.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Puangthong R. </div></div>

<div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Under the century-old martial law declared by the army, a special body, set up on Wednesday to be responsible for internet censorship, vowed to shut down websites in an hour.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The body is composed of representatives from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), the police, and the army’s special peacekeeping body, the Peace and Order Maintaining Command (POMC). </div></div>

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<div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong><span>Thailand: Imposition of martial law is unnecessary, disproportionate, and illegal</span></strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Paris, Bangkok, 20 May 2014 - The Thai Army’s imposition of martial law is an unnecessary, disproportionate, and illegal measure that pushes Thailand further away from a political solution to the ongoing turmoil, FIDH and its member organization Union for Civil Liberty (UCL) said today.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The two organizations urged the immediate l </div>

<div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The Thammasat University law scholars group Nitirat has called on the government to revoke martial law which was declared by the army early on Tuesday morning, saying that the law was declared arbitrarily without the approval of HM the King.&nbsp;</div> <div> </div></div>

<p>Since three special laws have been enforced in the three Southern border provinces including the Martial Law Act B.E.2457 (1914) and the Emergency Decree on Government Administration in States of Emergency B.E. 2548 (2005) covering the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and the Internal Security Act B.E. 2551 (2008) &nbsp;covering the districts of Chana, Thepha, Nathawee, and Sabayoy in Songkhla, almost all of cases related to insurgency &nbsp;are related to the enforcement of special laws.&nbsp;</p>