A Thai publisher has for the fourth time since September removed an article from the International New York Times, this time about a recent lèse majesté case.  

According to the BBC Thai Service, the Eastern Printing Company, the publisher of the International New York Times in Thailand, has removed an article titled ‘Thai man charged with insulting Royal dog’ from a page of the 15 December 2015 issue.

Instead of the headline and text, an empty space contains the simple message “The article in this space was removed by our printer in Thailand. The International New York Times and its editorial staff had no role in its removal.”

The article which was written by Thomas Fuller was about Thanakorn S., a 27-year-old factory worker who has been charged under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law, for clicking ‘like’ on an image of Thong Daeng, HM the King’s dog, with sarcastic comments and pressing ‘like’ on a doctored image of the King.

The suspect was first arrested and charged under Article 116, the sedition law, for sharing an infographic on the Rajabhakti Park corruption scandal before the military filed additional lèse majesté charges against him.

Earlier this month, the publisher blocked an op-ed article from the 4 December issue of the International New York Times about the suggestions to reform the Crown Property Bureau, the quasi-government agency responsible for managing the property of the Thai Crown.

According to Khaosod English, Yuth Chinsupakul, Eastern Printing chairman, told Manager News that after an inspection of the newspaper the company found “the headline and article had a sensitive issue relating to the monarchy of Thailand.”

The censorship came only two weeks after an article by Thomas Fuller titled ‘Thai spirits sagging with the economy’ was removed from the 1 December 2015 issue.

In the article, Fuller wrote that this year, 2015, the property crime rate in Thailand had risen more than 60 per cent and the prospects for the second largest economy in Southeast Asia are rather bleak under the prolonged political turmoil and the current military regime of Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, who staged a coup d’état in May last year.

In September 2015, the same printer refused to publish the September 22 issue of the International New York Times containing an article written by the same author, saying that the title and the picture used in the front page article depicting a pro-establishment yellow shirt carrying a portrait of the King was “too sensitive”.

The article talked about the health of King Bhumibol, who turned 88 on 5 December 2015, and the future of the Thai monarchy.

Shortly after that incident, the New York Times announced that it will no longer publish in Thailand in 2016 due to the rising cost of operations in the country.

Last year, the Thai authorities blocked the website of the Daily Mail, a UK-based news agency, over an article about the Crown Prince of Thailand.  The site remains blocked.

Articles critical of the Thai monarchy are still strictly forbidden in Thailand under the lèse majesté law, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment per count.

After the coup, offences under the lèse majesté law are handled by military courts, which allow no appeal.   

In August 2015, a Thai military court sentenced a man accused of defaming the Thai monarchy on a social network to 30 years in jail in a trial held in camera. The ruling is the heaviest jail term ever recorded for a lèse majesté case.

Freedom of the press in Thailand has spiralled down under the military regime, which, by invoking Section 44 of the Interim Constitution, has absolute power to maintain national security, to silence journalists and crush political dissent.

In late September, prominent journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk was detained by the military at an army base outside Bangkok over twitter comments criticising the military regime.