<p>Voice TV today pulled two well-known political commentators from programs it airs for 10 days beginning today under pressure from the military regime and telecommunications regulators.</p> <p>An unnamed senior executive at the station offered to muzzle the two commentators to avoid harsher sanctions by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, a state agency granted special powers last month to censor the media, according to Commissioner Supinya Klangnarong.</p> <p>The station’s news director took to Twitter to explain the rationale.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The military court has denied bail for members of a Chiang Mai political clan accused of committing crimes against the state in letters criticising the junta-sponsored draft constitution.</p>

<div>Although the August referendum was held under an oppressive atmosphere, a politician from the main opposition party said the political parties are to be blamed for the results, adding that parties need reform to sway voters from authoritarianism.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>At a public panel hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Clubs of Thailand (FCCT) on Friday, 12 August 2016, Suranand Vejjajiva argued that, in the leadup to the referendum, political parties critiqued the junta-backed draft constitution but didn’t make clear what principles should actually underpin Thailand’s gove </div>

<div>Relatives of two local red shirt leaders have reported abuse of power by the Thai military to the UN in Bangkok after the two were detained incommunicado. The two leaders were accused of involvement in the explosions in the upper South that took place a week earlier. </div>

<p dir="ltr">Pro-democracy activists and lecturers visited a well-known anti-junta activist from Isaan, Thailand’s northeast, who has been stricken with a fever after more than a week of hunger striking behind bars.</p> <p dir="ltr">Chaturapat Boonyapatraksa, 25 and a youth activist from the New Democracy Movement (NDM), is being detained at Phu Khiao District Prison in the Isaan province of Chaiyaphum.</p> <p dir="ltr">Around 40 lecturers from Naresuan University and activists from Dao Din, a youth activist group based in Khon Kaen University, visited Chaturapat on Monday, 15 August 2016.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A security expert advising the Thai junta has argued that the Mother’s Day attack was likely connected to the junta’s political opponents.</p>

<p>After a series of arson and bomb attacks rocked five provinces in Southern Thailand on Thursday night and Mother’s Day, the Thai military arrested a southern political activist and a red shirt and detained them in military bases.</p> <p>Many military officers from Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) of Phraya Ratsadanu Pradit Camp, and police and administrative officers from Huai Yot District of the southern province of Trang at 6:30 am on Saturday, 13 August 2016, arrested Prapas Rotchanapithak, a local political and human rights activist.</p>

<p>Despite the junta’s attempt to restrict criticism of the regime-backed draft charter, a public poll conducted in northeastern Thailand, the Isaan region, shows that Isaan people are still hostile to the military regime.</p>

<div>A politician in the northern Thailand has been detained for spreading letters allegedly distorting the junta-sponsored draft charter’s content although the referendum has already ended. </div>

<p>The Thai junta leader has said that the notorious Section 44 of the Interim Charter, which gives the regime absolute power, is still necessary to comfort people.</p>

<div>The Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) has refused to recount ballots after the August 7 draft charter referendum despite reports of various polling irregularities. </div>

<p dir="ltr">Contradicting the Minister of Justice, the Thai National Human Rights Commission has concluded that shackling political dissidents is a violation of human rights.</p> <p>What Tingsamitr, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), on Tuesday, 9 August 2016, concluded that the use of shackles by the Department of Corrections (DC) on detained political activists from the New Democracy Movement (NDM) violates human rights and dignity,<a href="http://www.manager.co.th/Politics/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9590000079290">&nbsp;the Manager Online reported</a>.</p>