“Article 112: Awareness Campaign” is a group of individuals from different walks of life who are concerned with the Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code as a serious threat to rights, freedoms and democracy. Over the past 5 years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of those accused and prosecuted on charges of lese majeste. This undeniably represents seriousness of the problems with the law which, in order to find the solution, requires open public discussions and studies. However, wider public discussions have not been so successful as a number of people still fear that they could be charged with lese majeste or perceived as those who aim at overthrowing the monarchy.  As a result, instead of openly discussing and exchanging their views about the pros and cons of the law, they often resort to self-censorship.

Such existing climate of fear has gotten worse with the State including the Thai Army launching a series of threats against individuals who are merely exercising their rights to freedom of expression. For example, as Thai Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha stated on 12 April 2011 that “Everyone says that they have rights and so come out to oppose the lese majeste law.  These are (two) different stories. In fact, Thai people have long accepted this very law all along. If anyone leaves him (the King) alone or does no touch him, will she/he gets charged? (I want to) ask if this very law actually cause damage to anyone?”. This threatening message was followed by the Thai Army filing lese majeste charges against individuals for the first time, not to mention the recent shows of force by the Thai Army in its self-claim of protecting the monarchy.

Therefore “Article 112” sees the serious need to insist on the right, as guaranteed by law, to campaign on this particular issue and work to make space for mutual learning and public discussion so that people in Thai society can eventually find the ways out of this great fear and conflict.

Therefore the group calls for;

1.    The State to stop threatening and violating the right to freedom of expression of the people, academic freedoms and press freedoms by invoking the lese majeste law and the Computer Crime Act.
2.    The Thai Army to limit its role to safeguarding the country and stop invoking the draconian law against those who hold different political ideologies and stop their self- claimed show of force to uphold the monarchy as it will only further the pervasive climate of fear and conflict in Thai society. 
3.    The media to stop the practice of self-censorship and instead play a crucial role as reporters of the problems.