Demonstrations in Thailand
Pro-democracy activists flash three-fingered salutes Monday during a demonstration in a suburb of Bangkok. In an effort to stem protests calling for the prime minister’s resignation, Thai authorities threatened to censor news coverage, raided a publishing house and attempted to block the Telegram messaging app used by demonstrators. More photos at arkansasonline.com/1020thailand/.
BANGKOK — Thai authorities worked Monday to stem a growing tide of protests calling for the prime minister to resign by threatening to censor news coverage, raiding a publishing house and attempting to block the Telegram messaging app used by demonstrators.
The efforts by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s government to drain the student-led protests of support and the ability to organize comes as demonstrations have grown in the capital and spread around the country, despite an emergency decree that bans public gatherings of more than four people in Bangkok, outlaws news said to affect national security and gives authorities broad power to detain people.
Thousands of mostly young protesters massed in northern Bangkok on Monday evening, as they have in various locations in the capital over the past six days to push their demands, including a call for reform of the monarchy. At one point, they raised their arms and flashed a three-fingered salute, a sign of resistance borrowed from “The Hunger Games” movie series. As night fell, they held their cellphones up and points of light dotted the crowd.
Elsewhere, protesters gathered outside a prison where more than a dozen demonstrators were being held.
The protesters charge that Prayuth, an army commander who led a 2014 coup, was returned to power unfairly in last year’s general election because laws had been changed to favor a pro-military party. The protesters say a constitution written and passed under military rule is undemocratic.
But their more recent demand for checks and balances on the monarchy has deeply angered conservative Thais — and broken a taboo since the monarchy is considered sacrosanct. It has also raised the risk of confrontation.
Authorities have used water cannons to disperse protesters in recent days. Several protest leaders who were arrested for trying to stage an overnight rally last week outside the prime minister’s office were freed by an appeals court Monday, though charges are still pending.
Authorities are now increasingly turning to censorship to try to clamp down after protesters heckled a royal motorcade last week in a once-unthinkable scene.
A top official with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission confirmed reports that the agency had been ordered to block access to the messaging app Telegram. Suthisak Tantayothin said it was talking with internet service providers about doing so.
Police also searched the office of a publishing house that handles books by Thai and foreign scholars with sometimes controversial perspectives. Same Sky said police took away copies of three titles that had been sold at a recent book fair in a bundle it called Monarchy Studies, and asked their publisher to come in for questioning.
Deputy police spokesman Kissana Phataracharoen also confirmed an order signed by the chief of police that could allow officials to block access to news sites that give what he called “distorted information.”