<p>Making Internet intermediaries liable for lese-majeste postings is like making restaurant owners liable for what diners say at the dining table, Internet expert Danny O'Brien said yesterday in written testimony to the Thai court trying webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiporn.</p>

<p>With the conspicuous absence of input from the US, representatives of a dozen countries including France, Germany, the UK and Australia have recommended that the Thai government amend the lese majeste law to bring the country's level of freedom of expression in line with international standards.</p>

<p>The week-long Vegetarian Food Festival, which comes to an end today [4 Oct], should have shed some light on the plight of animals that are advertised as being &quot;happy&quot; to be consumed.</p>

<p>There are stark differences between a government report on violence in the deep South and reports submitted by non-government groups for the first-ever Universal Periodic Review (UPR) that Thailand will face, at the United Nations' Human Rights Council in Geneva tomorrow.</p>

<p><em>Government report on state of several issues like lese majeste differs from those submitted by local NGOs</em></p> <p>This is the first of a two-part report comparing different versions of Thailand's first-ever Universal Periodic Review report on the human-rights situation here, which will be discussed at the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday.</p>

<p>Two weeks ago, on September 19, as Thailand marked the fifth anniversary of the coup that ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra from power, a group of academics, known as the Nitirat group, called a press conference to call for the expunging of all records and judicial decisions originating from the 2006 coup, the drafting of a new charter, as well as the amendment of the controversial lese majeste law by making it less draconian.</p>

<p>The Pheu Thai government should think again if it plans not to investigate and prosecute those who masterminded the deadly crackdown on red shirts in April and May 2010, warned Nattaputt Akahad, younger brother of nurse Kamolkaed Akahad, one of the highest-profile fatalities in last year's clashes.</p>

<p><strong>What did you do five years ago when you heard that another military coup was being staged? Did you support it or were you against it? Or did you just sit by idly?</strong></p>

<p>Prosecution witness Pol Lieutenant Boonlert Kalayanamitr told the court yesterday that prachatai.com director Chiranuch Premchaiporn had indeed committed a crime by not removing alleged lese majeste remarks posted by others on the site's bulletin board.</p>

<p>The not-for-profit prachatai.com online newspaper has come under ferocious accusations of late, to wit that the left-leaning newspaper is actually a fake and an agent of the &quot;neo-imperialist&quot; United States, to use the word of its accuser, who comes by the name of Tony Cartalucci.</p>

<p><em>Corporate mass media filter their information. So does the Internet</em></p> <p>Dateline Earth: As if the Planet Mattered<br /> By Kunda Dixit<br /> Published by IPS Asia-Pacific Centre Foundation, 2011<br /> Available at Asia Books, Bt450<br /> Reviewed by Pravit Rojanaphruk</p> <p>&quot;Dateline Earth&quot; is both an informal textbook suited to journalism students and a thought-provoking challenge to notions about corporate and online media.</p>

<p>Defamatory remarks against the Royal Family rose in number after the 2006 military coup left some people unhappy with the palace, prosecution witness Pol Maj-General Surapol Tuanthong told the court yesterday [2 Sept]. He was testifying in the computer crime case against prachatai.com online newspaper director Chiranuch Premchaiporn.</p>