As the European Union and Thailand will soon be resuming negotiations for a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Thai civil society organizations issued an open letter calling for the EU to take steps to ensure accountability and protection of rights.

Last year, Thailand passed the Marriage Equality Act, which made it the first Southeast Asian country to legalise marriage for all. However, writes political science graduate student and former activist Ford (Tattep) Ruangprapaikitseree, this does not mean it is a free country.

The Network for People’s Amnesty has called on the opposition to raise the issue of political prosecutions in the no-confidence debate scheduled for 24-25 March, urging the government to fulfil its commitments to political detainees.

A number of People’s Party MPs and former Move Forward Party (MFP) MPs said that they have received summonses from the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) regarding an ethics probe over their submission of a bill to parliament proposing amendments to the royal defamation law. If found guilty of an ethnics breach, they could be banned for life from standing for election.

Since pro-democracy protests emerged in 2020, Thailand's draconian royal defamation law has been wielded in several cases concerning political expression, often with disproportionate penalties and with verdicts that far exceed the boundaries of protecting freedom of expression. In many cases, law enforcement seems over the top. Prachatai has collected data on the following 12 cases of royal defamation between July 2020 and14 May 2024 that seem egregious and anomalous

The Election Commission has unanimously agreed to petition the Constitutional Court, seeking the dissolution of the Move Forward Party after the court ruled that the party’s campaign to amend the royal defamation law is treasonous.

A lecturer at Thammasat University has been indicted under the royal defamation law and the Computer-Related Crime Act after he was allegedly involved in a May 2021 Twitter post related to a rumour about the King. He was later granted bail with the condition that he is not allowed to travel abroad unless granted permission.

A 51-year-old man has been sentenced to 36 years in prison for 12 Facebook posts. The sentence was reduced to 12 years and 72 months without parole.

A man has been sentenced to 4 years and 24 months in prison without parole for violating the royal defamation law and the Computer Crimes Act after he posted on Facebook about the King and the Queen’s popularity and the King’s trips to Germany.

A TikTok user has been sentenced to three years in prison for her video clip criticising the Thai government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The sentence was later reduced to one year and six months with a two-year parole.

A 21-year-old activist has been arrested for royal defamation over a social media post of a picture of a man holding 2 pieces of paper with offensive messages in front of a picture of the King and Queen. He was later granted bail.

Protests took place last week in Chiang Mai’s old town to show support for detained human rights lawyer Anon Nampa and demand the release of activists and protesters detained on charges relating to political expression.