Mentors Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of independent Thai online news portal Prachatai, was granted bail this afternoon after prosecutors eventually filed a lawsuit against her under the Computer Crimes Act. Ms Chiranuch had to wait nearly four hours before bail was approved with a 300,000 baht bond, calculated on her salary as a nursing sister, for not removing commens posted on a web-board deemed offensive to the monarchy [color:red]fast enough to satisfy the government censors.[/color] The Criminal Court set May 31 for the first hearing to check defence and prosecution witness lists. [color:red]She is accused of allowing lese majeste comments on Prachatai’s online discussion board. If convicted she faces up to 50 years' imprisonment.[/color] She was first arrested in March last year at a time when the government was very touchy about references to the monarchy. The cyber law, which was introduced during the administration of Gen Surayud Chulanont, was first successfully prosecuted against blogger Suvicha Thakor, who received a 20-year sentence in April last year. He has applied for a royal clemency and is waiting for the result. At least six other people have been arrested under this law, but prosecutors have yet to arraign them. http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/173359/prachatai-webmaster-granted-bail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpiceMan Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 In a country that claims to be a constitutional monarchy, this law is just plain wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 Hi, Fully agree. Laws like that do not belong in the 21st century. Bloody scary, esp the 'not fast enough' bit. How long does one have to remove comments? A day? An hour? 10 minutes? Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpiceMan Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 This law just criminalizes decent people. Must be scary for web-masters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentors Posted March 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 This law just criminalizes decent people. Must be scary for web-masters. Since 2008 the cases under this law are growing massive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpiceMan Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 Since 2008 this law is growing massive. Actually laws like this are getting worse world wide. In the UK a forum master recently had to pay large damages because he didn't take down libelous comments fast enough. OK, thats not the same as going to jail but he still lost his home just because he wasn't online 24/7. And the recent laws governing the internet in Australia are ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 Never would have happened if Thaksin were still PM. Just ask Shawn Crispin and Rodney Tasker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpiceMan Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 Mentors, did you change your post? I didn't re-read what came up when I quoted, so it looked like I made a non-sequitor. I didn't mean to imply that the lese majeste law had changed in Thailand since 2008. But I would agree that there are more prosecutions and threats of prosecution than there were previously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpiceMan Posted March 31, 2010 Report Share Posted March 31, 2010 Never would have happened if Thaksin were still PM. Just ask Shawn Crispin and Rodney Tasker. They were kicked out of the country, not jailed for 20 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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