<p>A Thai-born dual Thai-US citizen and passport holder was arrested and detained without bail on Thursday for allegedly putting up a computer link to the content of the banned book &quot;The King Never Smiles&quot; on his blog.</p>

<p>Leading feminists say that having Yingluck Shinawatra as a candidate for the country's top job is not a milestone in the struggle for greater gender equality, because Yingluck is an unknown quantity and does not necessarily represent women's interests.</p>

<p>There is more than one prisoner of conscience in Thailand, although the number of those detained under lese majeste law and their names known to Amnesty International (AI) is &quot;not for public consumption&quot;, said Benjamin Zawacki, AI's researcher for Thailand and Burma.</p> <p>&quot;We don't declare every time someone is a prisoner of conscience,&quot; Zawacki said in a phone interview with The Nation yesterday.</p>

<p><em>Lack of sympathy for calls for justice, democracy still evident</em></p> <p>One year on, tens of thousands of red shirts converged at Ratchaprasong Intersection yesterday to commemorate the end of the bloody military confrontation with the reds. Many are still grappling with how the government managed to get away with the crackdowns that began on April 10 and ended on May 19, leaving a combined death toll of 92 from both sides - but mostly red shirts - and more than a thousand injuries.</p>

<p>One year after the bloody military crackdown on the red-shirt protest that ended on May 19, its unintended consequences that still reverberate today.</p>

<p>For the first time in several years, Amnesty International acknowledged yesterday that there was at least one prisoner of conscience in Thailand. This was declared in the agency's recently released 2011 report on human rights, which details how the freedom of expression is being curbed through the use of the emergency decree, the lese majeste law and the Computer Crime Act.</p>

<p>Lese majeste allegations came into focus again yesterday, as foreign media become more interested in the growing number of charges and about what's really happening in Thailand.</p>

<p>The recent spate of lese majeste charges against opponents of the government - including academics, journalists and red-shirt leaders - is creating a climate of fear that has further politicised the monarchy, critics say.</p>

<p>Deep distrust towards the less educated and rural poor is prevalent among the middle class and elite who, to the detriment of society as a whole, fail to see themselves as a big part of the problem, especially the absence of genuine democracy and equality in Thailand.</p>

<p>Accused by some of being mentally unsound, academic Somsak Jiamteerasakul continues his calls for reforms</p> <p>Thammasat University historian Somsak Jiamteerasakul is probably the most under-reported public intellectual in Thailand. That's not because he doesn't have anything to say; quite the contrary in fact. A vocal critic of the Thai monarchy and the country's lese-majeste law, Somsak has long been treated by most mainstream mass media as persona non grata.</p>

<p>Despite protests, the House of Representatives is expected to go ahead with passing the Public Assembly Bill during its third and last reading on 27 April - a move that will curb people's constitutional right to assembly and give courts the power to decide whether a protest is legal or not. The Nation's Pravit Rojanaphruk speaks to Anusorn Unno, a leading opponent of the bill and lecturer of anthropology at Thammasat University, about what he's so unhappy about. Here are some excerpts:</p>

<p>Thammasat University historian Somsak Jiamteerasakul said yesterday he's ready to fight any lese-majeste charges and prove his innocence - but the military must cease what he called harassment that was frightening his family.</p>