Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Thai authorities to abandon any plan to prosecute Pravit Rojanaphruk, a well-known journalist and free speech advocate who is to be questioned by police tomorrow about a complaint accusing him of sedition in five Facebook posts.
A leading critic of Thailand’s military junta and its lèse-majesté law, Pravit could face a possible 20-year jail sentence if prosecuted on a sedition charge under article 116 of the criminal code as a result of the complaint brought against him by a police lieutenant-colonel.
This is just the latest of many attempts to silence Pravit, who has often been targeted by the authorities in connection with his reporting for the Khaosod English news website and (previously) for The Nationnewspaper, and the views he expresses.
“We call on the authorities to immediately drop any criminal proceedings against Pravit Rojanaphruk,” RSF said. “This forthright journalist has been harassed repeatedly just for expressing his opinions and defending the freedom to inform, to the point that he had to leave his former position with The Nation. It is time the authorities realized that free speech and media freedom are fundamental rights that cannot be attacked in this way, and especially with complete impunity.”
Announcing last month that Pravit is to be one of the recipients of its
2017 International Press Freedom Award, the Committee to Protect Journalists described him as “a critical reporter and press freedom advocate in Thailand, who was harassed by the government and detained twice in recent years over his coverage of Thai politics and human rights.”
Pravit campaigned against the junta’s censorship of the media in 2014 (Photo from Kapook)