By Prachatai |
<p>Thanapol Eawsakul, a co-founder of Same Sky, a book publisher well known for producing titles about Thai political history and the monarchy has been sued by Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited (GULF) over a Facebook post shared from an MP who has also been sued by the company.</p>
<p>Military officers have visited the editor of the Same Sky Journal, asking whether the journal is involved in the distribution of Pheu Thai Party New Year calendar images of Yingluck and Thaksin.</p>
<p>According to Thanapol Eawsakul, the editor of Same Sky Journal, an anti-establishment socio-political journal (Fah Diew Kan in Thai), four military officers came to his office at 12 noon on Wednesday, 13 January 2016, and held a brief discussion with him.</p>
By Asian Human Rights Commission |
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<div>The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is gravely concernedto have learned that Thanapol Eawsakul, writer, human rights defender, and editor of Fa Diew Kan (Same Sky) journal and publishing house, has been re-arrested and is being held by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). The conditions of his re-arrest and detention are arbitrary and a clear derogation of the Government of Thailand's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
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<div>The trimonthly Same Sky journal, an academic journal which constantly criticizes the lèse majesté law and the establishment, has sent a letter to its subscribers saying that they will indefinitely delay publication of the journal due to the climate of fear. </div>
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<div>Same Sky editor Thanapol Eawsakul was one of the first people summoned by the military junta. He was arrested for protesting against the junta and later detained without charge for seven days.
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By Thanapol Eawsakul |
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<div>This is my account as a person who reported himself following an order of the junta and was detained for 7 days. As a number of friends have not yet reported themselves, and many have been called to do so, I think that this account may factor into the decisions of many people. </div>
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<div>The conditions under which I reported may be different from those of many others. Since I was arrested on the evening of 23 May, I was detained for one night before there was a list of summons for people to report themselves.
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<p>On 27 April, Fah Diew Kan editor Thanapol Eawsakul was summoned by the Crime Suppression Division as a witness to possible lèse majesté cases against over 50 people who posted messages on the magazine’s webboard about a couple of years ago. </p>
<p>Democrat MP Watchara Petthong has filed lèse majesté charges against Thaksin Shinawatra, Robert Amsterdam and editor of the Same Sky magazine Thanapol Eawsakul for the publication of the Thai version of the White Paper.</p>
<p>The Ministry of Culture and the Department of Special Investigation will set up a panel to investigate <a href="http://www.sameskybooks.org/">Same Sky magazine</a> for alleged lèse majesté content. A group of royalists have urged a senate committee to take action against lèse majesté offenders on Facebook, and the DSI has posted an arrest warrant for a Facebook user. </p>