RWB on press freedom

Reporters Without Borders has released their latest ranking of media freedom around the world. Thailand makes a very, very small improvement after a considerable leap last year, but remains in the lower ranks on this particular table, at 135 of 179 countries.

As far as PPT can tell from the press release and the full report (downloads a PDF), Thailand is not mentioned except in the rankings table. However, the Bangkok Post has some commentary. It says:

“The press is much freer in Thailand than in neighbouring countries,” the report said, but then attacked the government for its treatment of internet media.

“Online freedom of expression began to deteriorate from the moment the new Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra assumed power in July 2011,” said the report by Reporters Without Borders.

It cited in particular prosecution under the lese majeste law and commented, “Apparently the government has forgotten its promises to amend Article 112 of the Thailand Penal Code.”

Apparently, the Bangkok Post confuses the new report with the one from last year. When that report came out last year, PPT took issue with the RSF report. Like others, RSF claims that:

online freedom of expression began to deteriorate from the moment the new Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra assumed power in July 2011. Abusive recourse to the politically exploited lèse-majesté law has led to an increase in litigations and strict censorship.

We noted that only part of that was true. While there has reportedly been an increase in URL blocking (including PPT), we did not see evidence of any increase in litigation on lese majeste under the Yingluck government. That remains largely true. The claims also took attention away from the upgrades Thailand received in the ranking that year following the end of the repressive Abhisit Vejjajiva regime in mid-2011.

As RWB said in that 2012 report, “Other than for monarchy-related issues, the media are relatively free in Thailand.” It is the lese majeste and related computer crimes legislation that undermines the media in Thailand (and the judiciary and the monarchy itself). The recent conviction of Somyos Prueksakasemsuk is just one more example of the draconian lese majeste law being used to demonstrate that journalists, and anyone else who thinks they should have a voice, must self-censor on the monarchy.