Leader seeks to subdue rising protest movement
BANGKOK — Thai authorities tried 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 Chanocha’s government to drain the studentled protests of support and the ability to organize comes as demonstrations have grown in the capital and spread around the country. The protests have grown 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 controversial call for reform of the monarchy. At one point, they raised their arms in unison and flashed a threefingered salute, a sign of resistance borrowed from “The Hunger Games” movie series.
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 promilitary 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. The monarchy is considered sacrosanct and tough laws protecting it from insult mean its role is not usually discussed openly.
Authorities have used water cannons to disperse protesters in recent days and detained some. 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.
Authorities are now increasingly turning to censorship to try to clamp down on the demonstrations after protesters heckled a royal motorcade last week in a once unthinkable scene.
With protests continuing, a top official with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission confirmed reports that the agency had been ordered to block access to Telegram. Suthisak Tantayothin said it was talking with internet service providers about doing so, but so far the encrypted messaging app favored by many demonstrators around the world was still available in the country.
Police also searched the office of a publishing house that handles books by Thai and foreign scholars with sometimes controversial perspectives.
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.”