p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Chiranuch Premchaiporn, founder of Thai website Prachatai, was arrested on Friday for alleged violation of Computer Crimes Act.

“Prachatai is among the most independent and popular websites in the kingdom,” says IFEX.

She was granted bail with Chantana Banpasirichote, political science lecturer from Chulalongkorn University, as guarantor, says Prachatai, going on she was fingerprinted and, “Police have yet to finish copying data from her hard disk.”

Prachatai, “has developed a reputation for independent reporting, particularly through its hard-hitting reports on the conflict between government forces and Muslim rebels in the country’s three southernmost provinces,” says Committee To Protect Journalists, adding:

“The site was threatened with closure last year because of comments deemed harmful to the monarchy posted to one of the site’s online public forums.

“A letter signed by a group of 50 international scholars and dignitaries addressed to Prime Minister Abhisit released at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand on Thursday urged him to reform Thailand’s lese majeste law. The letter said the ‘frequent abuse of the lese majeste law against political opponents undermines democratic processes’ and generates ‘heightened criticism of the monarchy and Thailand itself, both inside and outside the country’.”

Laesa maiestas or Laesae maiestatis

This January Suwicha Thakhor was arrested one day after Thai Netizen Network, a group that defends online freedom of expression, met with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and suggested ways to reach a compromise on Internet regulation, including the issue of lese majeste, said Reporters Without Borders.

Lèse majesté is a French expression, “from the Latin Laesa maiestas or Laesae maiestatis (crimen), (crime of) injury to the Majesty; in English, also lese majesty or leze majesty) is the crime of violating majesty, an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state,” says the Wikipedia.

Thakhor was arrested because his computer’s IP address, matched the address from which comments about the king and his aides had been sent,” said RWB.

Thakhor denied the allegations.

IFEX - Website moderator Chiranuch Premchaiporn arrested for alleged violation of Computer Crimes Act, March 6, 2009
Prachatai – Prachatai Director gets bail, March 6, 2009
Committee To Protect Journalists – Assault intensifies against Thai online news media, March 6, 2009
online freedom of expression – Thai man arrested on `lese majeste` charge, January 17, 2009
Reporters Without Borders – Another Internet user arrested for lese majeste as Internet regulation dialogue gets under way, January 14, 2009

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 2:03 pm and is filed under P2P, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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