Magazine sued for ‘blasphemy’ over painting of ancient kings

Artwork was posted on Facebook to promote a rally urging authorities to tackle toxic haze

The governor of Thailand’s Chiang Mai province has sued a local magazine for posting a “blasphemous” painting on Facebook of ancient kings wearing pollution masks as part of a campaign to protest the city’s hazardous smog.

All matters touching on the monarchy are highly sensitive in Thailand, a country where kings have been revered as near deities and are protected by one of the world’s harshest royal defamation laws.

The broadly-interpreted crime of lese majeste — which can carry decades-long sentences — has cemented a culture of self-censorship across the kingdom’s academic, media and arts circles when it comes to royal affairs.

Wearing pollution masks

The risks of testing those boundaries were on display Friday when an English-language magazine faced legal action for posting an image on social media of three statues of ancient kings — a Chiang Mai landmark — in pollution masks.

The painting, which was the work of a local high school student, was posted on Citylife Chiang Mai’s Facebook page to promote a rally urging authorities to tackle a toxic haze that plagues the northern city annually.

The province’s governor called the artwork a “blasphemous act” and dispatched an official to file charges against the outlet under Thailand’s Computer Crime Act.

The cybercrime law, which carries up to five years in prison for uploading false content to the web, is routinely used against perceived critics of the monarchy on social media, though it is not as harsh as the lese majesty law that carries up to 15 years per offence.

“I assigned my official to file a complaint with police yesterday that the picture may have violated the Computer Crime Act as it’s inappropriate,” Chiang Mai governor Pawin Chamniprasart said yesterday.

“The statues of three kings are very sacred.”