Thailand jails magazine editor over articles defaming king

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/23/thailand-jails-magazine-editor-somyot-prueksakasemsuk

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A Thai magazine editor has been jailed for 10 years for insulting the royal family under the country's draconian lese-majesty law.

Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, editor of Voice of the Oppressed, a magazine devoted to the self-exiled former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was found guilty of publishing articles in 2010 defaming King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The articles criticised the role of a fictional character meant to represent the king, public prosecutors said in a July 2011 report. Discussions about the role of the monarchy are forbidden.

"The accused is a journalist who had a duty to check the facts in these articles before publishing them. He knew the content defamed the monarchy but allowed their publication anyway," a judge said in passing sentence.

Somyot, who was jailed for an additional year on an unrelated defamation conviction, was arrested on the lese-majesty charge while the Oxford-educated, pro-establishment Abhisit Vejjajiva was prime minister.

The current prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's sister, promised to amend the law during her 2011 election campaign but has rowed back on that since coming to office, causing divisions among her supporters.

Rights groups say the lese-majesty law is used by Thailand's powerful elite to silence political opponents, including supporters of pro-Thaksin groups.

"The lese-majesty law works against the long-term interests of the Thai monarchy," said David Streckfuss, a Thailand-based independent scholar and lese-majesty expert. "To a society that is becoming ever more politically conscious, the holding and trying of defendants seems arbitrary, petty and a clear violation of human rights."

Websites accused of defaming the royal family are frequently shut down.

"Thailand's 2007 computer crimes act effectively muzzles those who want to express an honest opinion, and 75% of websites shut down since it came into force have been because of so-called anti-monarchy content," said Sawatree Suksri, a criminal law lecturer at Thammasart University, in Bangkok.

Convictions under the law carry a maximum jail term of 15 years.

The 85-year-old king, who has been in hospital since 2009, is seen by many in Thailand as a unifying, semi-divine father figure.

National unease over what follows his reign has contributed to tensions in the country since before Thaksin was toppled by the military, in 2006, leaving the country divided broadly between royalists and nationalists on the one side and Thaksin's mostly lower-class supporters on the other.