<p>Environmentalists have called on the authorities to rethink changing Thailand’s environmental protection law, because the process lacks public oversight.</p>
<p>The Ministry of Defence has claimed that soldiers merely asked for cooperation from a high-school student activist who was visited by plainclothes soldiers. </p>
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<div>Australia has granted asylum to a former senior Thai police officer investigating human trafficking, who was subject to death threats and intimidation after exposing the crimes of influential government and security officials.</div>
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<div>The intimidation of Pol Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin began during his role as senior investigator into the trafficking of Rohingya Muslims in a case that involved 153 suspects and 103 defendants (62 of whom have been convicted) —Thailand’s largest human trafficking case. </div>
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<div>The defendants included senior mili
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<div>Soldiers have visited the school of a student activist, asking him to stop criticising Prayut with threats of further intimidation. </div>
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<div>On 21 July 2017, Sanhanutta Sartthaporn, the Secretary General of the education reform group Education for Liberation of Siam (ELS), <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=253389001818992&set=a.104002506757643.1073741828.100014436812203&type=3&theater">posted on his Facebook account</a> that he was visited by two plainclothes soldiers on Wednesday morning.</div>
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<div>The soldiers appr
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<div>On 18 July 2017, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) awarded its Press Freedom Award to four journalists, including Pravit Rojanaphruk, a senior reporter at Khaosod English, who has consistently criticised Thailand’s junta and the lèse majesté law.
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<div>After repeated postponements, the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) has announced that the next election will be held on 19 August 2018.</div>
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<div>On 17 July 2017, Supachai Somcharoen, chair of the ECT, <a href="http://www.tnamcot.com/view/596c7d2be3f8e40af5bdb06d">announced the time frame</a> for Thailand’s next general election. The law on the election of MPs will be promulgated by 31 March 2018 while the ECT’s regulations on elections, including electoral districts, will be released in early April.
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<p>The Civil Court has commenced a trial initiated by democracy activists against the junta leader, the Army and the Royal Thai Police (RTP). The activists accuse authorities of violating their rights during a crackdown on a gathering to commemorate the 2014 coup d’état.</p>
<p>On 18 July 2017, the Civil Court <a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=4691">held the first plaintiff witness hearing</a> in a case filed by 13 youth activists, most of whom are former members of the New Democracy Movement.</p>
<p>The Deputy Governor of Chiang Mai has threatened three academics who allegedly put up banners against the junta with being summoned by the military. </p>
<p>The junta has revealed its blueprint for national reconciliation, combining the late King’s philosophy with the junta’s 20-year national strategy.</p>
<p>On 17 July 2017, Lt Gen Kukiat Srinaka of Army Region 1 presided over a public forum on the ‘social contract for unity and reconciliation’, the blueprint for the junta’s national reconciliation plan.</p>
<p>The social contract was drafted by a subcommittee under the junta-appointed Committee on National Reform, National Strategy, and Reconciliation, most of whose members are military officers.</p>
<p>Social media has exploded in indignation over news that a naval college field trip to Japan was marked more by onsen springs and skiing than training and development.</p>
<p>The corruption watchdog group<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Watchdog.ACT/"> Watchdog ACT</a> has revealed details of a trip to Japan taken by a class of the Royal Thai Naval Command and Staff College which was sanctioned by the Naval Education Department. A significant portion of the itinerary appears to bear no relevance to the trip’s formal purpose of ‘observing work’.</p>
<p>Human rights lawyers are arguing that suspects accused of defaming Princess Sirindhorn should not be indicted under the lèse majesté law.</p>
<p>According to<a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=4680"> Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)</a>, from 18 July until December, the Provincial Court of Kamphaeng Phet will try four suspects charged with violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law.</p>
<p>Railway workers have urged the junta leader to halt amendment of the railway law, citing lack of public participation.</p>