<p>Paris-Bangkok, 27 September 2010 - On Friday, September 24, 2010, at approximately 2.30PM, the Thai immigration police arrested Ms. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, executive director of Prachatai, an independent news website, at the Bangkok Airport on charges of defaming the monarchy of Thailand and of violating articles 14 and 15 of the 2007 Computer-related Crimes Act and article 112 of the criminal code. Ms. Premchaiporn was returning from Hungary, where she had attended a conference entitled The Internet at Liberty 2010.</p>

<p>At about 1 am on 25 Sept, Chiranuch Premchaiporn was granted bail after placing 200,000 baht in cash as a guarantee.&nbsp; She denied all charges during police interrogation.</p> <p>She has to report to the police at Khon Kaen Police Station on 24 Oct.</p> <p>Over a dozen readers of Prachatai in Khon Kaen gathered at the police station to give her moral support.</p>

<p>Chiranuch Premchaipoen, the editor of the news website Prachatai, was arrested today at Bangkok&rsquo;s Suvarnabhumi airport on her return from a conference on Internet freedom in Budapest. Police showed her a warrant issued by a court in the northwestern province of Khon Kaen accusing her of defaming the royal family and of violating articles 14 and 15 of the Computer Crimes Act and article 112 of the criminal code.</p>

<p>According to Matichon, Pol Lt Col Chachpong Pongsuwan, investigator at Khon Kaen Police Station, said that a l&egrave;se majest&eacute; charge had been lodged against Chiranuch Premchaiporn since 2008. The case has been vetted by the Provincial Police Board Region 4, and is now being prosecuted by a department of the National Police Bureau. A summons is not necessary in this case because the offence carries a severe penalty.</p>

<p>The space on the Internet for dissenting political views is on the decline following the announcement by Prachatai, an online newspaper, that it will shut down its Web board by the end of this month, rights and media reform activists say. </p> <p>The decision &quot;is indicative of the shutdown of free speech in Thailand under the ongoing state of emergency&quot;, the Hong-Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) stated on Thursday.</p>

<p>Chiranuch Premchaiporn has informed readers that the Prachatai webboard will be closed on 31 July.&nbsp; The announcement should have been made a month earlier, but she has been too speechless, she says. She apologizes to readers.</p> <p>The Prachatai webboard was created when the Prachatai website first began, and was meant to be a space for free discussion.</p>

<h2>Fundamental principles</h2><p dir="ltr"><em>Prachatai: an independent and reliable media organization for democracy</em></p><p dir="ltr">Prachatai operates under the Foundation for Community Educational Media.</p><p dir="ltr">Prachatai aspires to be an independent media organization to present news and information for the development of a progressive democratic society. &nbsp;Prachatai is an online media organization which presents news, information, analyses, criticism and comment on issues which are important to the development of democracy.</p>

<p>Reporters Without Borders voices its support for Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the editor of the Prachatai news website, whose trial before a criminal court in the Bangkok district of Rachada is due to begin on 31 May. She is facing up to 50 years in prison for failing to act with sufficient speed to remove &ldquo;offensive&rdquo; comments about the monarchy posted by visitors to the site.</p>

<p>www.prachatai1.info has been blocked by the CRES since about 11 am today. www.prachatai.com, the original, was among the first batch of 36 websites ordered blocked by the CRES on 8 April. &nbsp;Its domain name was changed to www.prachatai.net until it was blocked on 5 May. &nbsp;Prachatai then changed its domain name to www.prachatai1.com which was immediately blocked on the same day. &nbsp;<a href="http://www.prachatai.info">www.prachatai.info</a> could continue until 20 May, and had to change to www.prachatai1.info until today. &nbsp;As of now (4.31 pm, 26 May), Prachatai can be accessed at www.prachatai2.info.&nbsp;</p>

<p>People are not really questioning the government's decision to censor media, simply because they believe it is acceptable under the emergency decree, said Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of prachatai.com, which is being blocked because it is considered to be pro-red shirt.</p>

<p>On the morning of 5 May, www.prachatai.net was blocked by the CRES. &nbsp;The page was redirected to http://58.97.5.29/www.capothai.org, with the message: Access is temporarily suspended, as ordered by the CRES under the 2005 Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situations.</p>

<p>The Facebook fan page of independent Thai online news site Prachatai.com was blocked today [28 April] by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), along with two other websites in the aftermath of the clash between security forces and Red Shirt protesters on 27 April, according to Chiranuch Premchaiporn, Prachatai's executive director. The fan page has 5,798 fans.</p>