<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ee7b0490-e785-17fc-f410-235223b8a496">Considering the climate of fear and repression, the success of a protest march commemorating the 2014 coup has raised questions about the government crackdown on political discussion. Although answers differ, it can be agreed that the presence of the event is a good sign.</span></p> <p></p>

<div> <div> <div>Facebook has rebutted Thai Facebook users’ concerns that the company has compromised its privacy policy to the Thai government, following the arrests of online activists charged with private Facebook chat content.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Tuesday, 10 May 2016, Facebook insisted that it never provides user information and does not cooperate with the Thai junta’s censorship practice, rejecting the allegations in the past few weeks that Facebook has supported the junta in the recent cyber crackdown against the junta critics, <a> </a></div></div></div>

<div>Thai human rights are in free fall; the ruling junta perceives human rights as a threat to national security. NCPO Order No. 13/2016 is the junta’s attempt to establish a full military regime, says Sunai Phasuk, advisor to Human Rights Watch Thailand.&nbsp;</div> <p></p>

<p>More than two-thirds of the committee responsible for screening the candidates to Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) are high-ranking military officers.</p> <p>A leaked classified document listing the members of the committee authorized to screen the behaviour and ethical backgrounds of the candidates to the NHRC shows that 12 of the 17 are four-star military offcers.</p> <p>Four other members are civilians and the remaining member is a police general.</p>

<p>After the names of the candidates for the National Human Rights Commissions of Thailand (NHRC) were revealed, many eyebrows were raised over the nomination of an ultra-royalist with a record of human rights abuse. For many human rights defenders, however, it is only the symptom of a malady that has long rendered the rights commission impotent.</p> <p></p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8373f501-6248-a278-69a0-14fc1809573d">Crowds gathered in central Bangkok to show support for the 14 detained anti-junta activists amid a heavy presence of police and military officers in and out of uniform.</span></p>

<div qowt-divtype="page" qowt-structural="true"> <div id="E-7" qowt-divtype="section" qowt-eid="E8" qowt-structural="true"> <p id="E31" qowt-divtype="para" qowt-eid="E31"><span id="E32" qowt-eid="E32">It </span><span id="E33" qowt-eid="E33">is </span><span id="E34" qowt-eid="E34">ten years since Prachatai was founded as an alternative media outlet.</span></p> </div></div>

<div> <p>Prachatai on Friday celebrated, under martial law, its 10th anniversary as a non-profit alternative online media in Thailand.&nbsp;</p> <p>About 60 guests joined the event to celebrate its 10th anniversary on Friday night.&nbsp;</p> <p>The event was by invitation only and kept secret until Friday night for fear that the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) would force the cancellation of the event.&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8629/16378606136_d51f788afa_z.jpg" /></p> </div>

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<p>To anyone interested in Thailand&rsquo;s recent history and politics Dr. Thongchai Winichakul needs little introduction. A famed academic and historian, now resident in Singapore and the USA, Dr. Thongchai was a student leader during the terrible Thammasat Massacre of 1976 and spent time in prison following those events.</p>