<p>Although it has been banned since April, the co-producer of the film &quot;Shakespeare Must Die&quot;, Manit Sriwanithpoom, continues his campaign to overturn the Film Board's decision, which was based on fears that the satirical work would be interpreted as a criticism of Thaksin Shinwatra, inflaming social divisions. Manit talked to The Nation on Sunday's Pravit Rojanaphruk about the road ahead. Excerpts follow.</p>

<p>Though Thai &quot;democracy&quot; turned 80 on Sunday, debate on whether the majority of Thai people are ready for democracy continues. It's still common to hear so-called well-educated and well-to-do Thais casting doubt as to the suitability of democracy for the Kingdom.</p>

<p>As Sunday's 80th anniversary of the June 24, 1932 coup approaches, Thai society has seen a steady revival of interest - especially among red shirts - in the day that marked the end of absolute monarchy, and whose date served as Thai National Day for two decades.</p>

<p><em>The past is always subject to editing, omission, co-optation and selective memorisation.</em></p> <p>This was manifested recently when the red shirts flocked to listen to their leaders' speeches at Muang Thong Thani's Thunder Dome. Before people like Jatuporn Promphan and Nattawut Saigua took the stage, a video showing how resistance to the September 19, 2006, military coup took shape was screened.</p>

<p>Video clip of panel discussion on the lese majeste law held on 7 June in Bangkok with speakers including Benedict Anderson,&nbsp; Pravit Rojanaphruk, Andrew MacGregor Marshall (via Skype), and Sulak Sivaraksa, moderated by Lisa Gardner.</p>

<p><em>Gwangju, South Korea June 4, 2012 1:00 am</em></p> <p>A priest in his 80s who wants the American military out of South Korea is honoured with a human-rights prize</p> <p>One of South Korea's &quot;street fathers&quot;, octogenarian Catholic priest Mun Jeong Hyeon is a leading figure among opponents of the US military's presence in the republic.</p>

<p>This article is, of course, in reply to <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/3241">Pravit&rsquo;s article</a> directed at my Twitter responses to his stated position &ndash; that he privileges the rights of large powerful media companies to intimidate, harass and threaten young Thai women, over the rights of these young Thai women to live their lives free of such intimidation.</p>

<p>Being a committed advocate for freedom of expression, I have recently had the honour of being accused on Twitter by one foreign supporter of the red-shirt movement, by the name of Andrew Spooner (@Andrewspoooner), of supporting the right of yellow-shirt mouthpiece ASTV-Manager Weekly News Magazine to engage in &ldquo;hate campaign&rdquo; against one young red-shirt woman on its current weekly issue (Issue no.138, May 26-Jun 1, 2012). </p>

<p><em>&ldquo;Today, every child would like to tell father that &lsquo;children love and would like to follow father&rsquo;s footsteps for ever&rsquo;. Long Live Your Majesty.&rdquo;</em></p> <p>Praew Magazine, issue 775, November 25, 2011, page 202<br /> &nbsp;</p> <p><em>&ldquo;If you hate father and no longer love father, then you must leave this place, because this is father&rsquo;s home.&rdquo;</em></p> <p>Pongpat Vachirabanjong, well-known actor, May 16, 2010, statement during Nataraja Acting Award acceptance at Navy Conference Room.<br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p>A yellow shirt in Roi Et has filed a l&egrave;se majest&eacute; complaint against Nation reporter Pravit Rojanaphruk, for his contributions to Prachatai.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In today&rsquo;s Thailand, many Thais see one-sided positive-only information about the monarchy and Thai mainstream mass media self-censorship as well as censorship on anything mildly critical of the monarchy as something &lsquo;normal&rsquo;. Little if any fuzz was made by pro-Thaksin mass media when a film mocking and criticizing Thaksin Shinawatra, entitled &lsquo;Shakespeare Must Die&rsquo;, was banned for good by the Film Board.</p>

<p>Years of mainstream mass media self-censorship on any information and news critical about the Thai monarchy and their incessant supply of mostly one-sided and positive-only information about the royal institution is unlikely to change anytime soon since there&rsquo;s no outrage or even public introspection by major media associations and corporations.</p>