By Harrison George |
<p>The decision by the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to put to a referendum the bail-out deal negotiated with the Eurozone and the IMF has not gone down well.</p>
By Pipob Udomittipong |
<p>Six years ago, a taxi driver, Nuamthong Praiwan, slammed his taxi into a military tank near a military headquarters in Bangkok. The seriously injured driver told the press he wanted to protest against the coup committed on 19 September that year. Then, the Deputy Spokesperson of the coupmakers, the misnomer, “Council for Democratic Reform (CDR)”, lashed out against the driver claiming that in thiscountry “no one dares to die for democracy.” In protest of the slanderous remark, on 31 October, Uncle Nuamthong hung himself to a flyover on Vipavadi Rd.</p>
By Harrison George |
<p> Rescue workers were diverted from flood relief work yesterday to deal with the collapse of a 6 storey condominium in the Thong Lo area. The tragedy was initially blamed on ‘overloading’ the upper floors of the near-new structure.</p>
By Andy Hall |
<p>Migrants are one ‘at risk’ group of people in the terrible floods that are affecting Thais and Thailand at this time for which the government needs to have a clear policy and response.</p>
By Andrew Spooner |
<p>Once again, London-based freedom of expression activists, <a href="http://www.article19.org">ARTICLE 19</a>, are taking the lead in pushing the international agenda for the repeal and reform of Thailand's draconian lese majeste law. In addition, in the interview below, they have also called for the immediate release of ALL of Thailand's lese majeste prisoners. But the most surprising development - which ARTICLE 19 have highlighted in their most recent press release - is the Thai Foreign Ministry's quite extraordinary comments on lèse majesté.</p>
By Harrison George |
<p>The most serious repercussion of the devastating floods has undoubtedly been on the economy. Damage caused by the flooding ran into the billions of baht, and while individual citizens have borne the brunt of this cost, the government has also been hit hard, if only for the huge amounts spent in flood prevention efforts, many of which of course proved futile.<br />
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By Pipob Udomittipong |
<p>Here is the gist of the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of Section 177 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Previously, Da Torpedo’s attorney challenged in the Lower Court (Criminal Court) that the holding of her trial on lèse majesté charges in closed doors is in breach of Section 29 and Section 40(2) of the 2007 Constitution (concerning the rights to fair trial).</p>
By Harrison George |
<p>This ‘Occupy Wall Street’ thing is simply getting out of hand. The media showed admirable restraint in ignoring this foolish prank when it started in September, effectively pretending that the demonstration did not exist. But now, more news outlets are mistakenly beginning to give it the ‘oxygen of publicity’ as the Sainted Margaret Thatcher said of IRA propaganda.</p>
By Andrew Spooner |
<p>Last week in Geneva, Switzerland, Thailand’s freedom of expression record came under particular scrutiny during the <a href="http://bit.ly/oIpZCz">Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations Human Rights Council</a>.</p>
<p><em>This story is written by a person, who was then a little girl, from her memories of what happened to her family in the wake of the incident. One of her elder brothers was a student leader at the protest at Thammasat University. The article was published in a book disseminated at the funeral of her father in May this year.</em></p>
By Harrison George |
<p>The revelation that the Twitter and Facebook accounts of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra have been hacked has increased suspicions that other parts of the government apparatus have also fallen foul of cyber criminals.</p>
By Harrison George |
<p>Sacred Heart’s ‘Remedial European History – World War II (Holocaust)’ was always going to be a difficult class. Class size was almost doubled by the ‘observers’ that the school administrators had invited in a desperate measure to escape even more criticism over an incident for which they had already disclaimed all responsibility.</p>