Facing royal defamation charges for singing a modified version of the royal anthem at a protest in January 2021, Chaiamorn “Ammy” Kaewwiboonpan, lead singer of The Bottom Blues pop band, was recently acquitted. However, another activist charged because of the protest, Promsorn, was sentenced to 2 years in prison without parole before being granted bail.

The government is proposing to allocate a budget of over 8.4 billion baht to the Royal Offices, according to a budget document released by the Budget Bureau on 26 December 2023. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Phumtham Wechayachai announced yesterday (25 December) that the Cabinet’s Constitutional Amendment Committee will propose 3 referendums on constitutional amendments and that the first will ask whether people want to amend the Constitution without amending chapters relating to the monarchy.

6 members of Progressive Social Security, a team of 7 labour rights advocates, have won most of the employee representatives’ seats on the Social Security Board in the country’s first-ever Social Security Board election, which had been postponed from 2015.

The residents of Thung Kula Ronghai, an area renowned for its cultivation of Thai Fragrant rice, staged a protest to demand the removal of a sugar factory and biomass power plant from the area out of concern that the facilities will negatively impact their local environment.

Yesterday (21 December), the Thai parliament passed the first reading of four bills proposing amendments to the marriage law to allow registration of marriage regardless of gender. If adopted, the amendments would make Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize marriage for all.

The Criminal Court today (21 December) dismissed a royal defamation charge filed against online influencer Aniwat Prathumthin, also known by the internet alias “Nara Crepe Katoei”, for video advertisements o the online shopping platform Lazada.

On Sunday (17 December), Just Home, a network of activists and citizens in Pattani, marched from the Pattani City Hall to the Pattani Central Mosque to call for a ceasefire in Palestine.

Charges against 19 participants in an anti-Prayut protest on 30 September 2021 have been dropped due to a lack of evidence proving that the protest caused a disturbance to the public or the spread of COVID-19.

Thailand is planning to achieve net zero emissions by 2065, 15 years later than its neighbours in the lower Mekong region. The country is seeking funding for climate response, and although its delegate at COP28 said Thailand is expecting some financial assistance from the Loss and Damage Fund, it will need other sources since the amount of grants given by the Fund is likely to be limited.

The Criminal Court has dismissed a sexual assault charge against Prinn Panitchpakdi, former deputy leader of the Democrat Party, citing a statute of limitations as well as the fact that he agreed with the alleged victim’s request to drop her off at a train station near her apartment.

Former pro-democracy activist and protest leader Shinawat Chankrajang has been sentenced to 3 years in prison on a royal defamation charge over a speech he gave at a protest in December 2020. He has been detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison as his family was immediately unable to post bail for him.