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Expat news
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Monday, 09 February 2009 |
 The Japanese government has approved a 63 billion yen (about 24 billion baht) loan to the Thai government to fund an extension of a BTS skytrain line. The loan will finance the construction of the red line, which will start in Rangsit in Pathum Thani province and pass through Bang Seu and Hua Lumpong in Bangkok to Mahachai in Samut Sakhon province. The Thai Prime Minister is on a three-day official visit to Japan to boost Japanese investors' confidence in the Thai economy and to strengthen trade ties between the two countries. The Japanese premier has expressed his wish to see countries in ASEAN work together through the global economic downturn.
TNA
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Expat news
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Tuesday, 03 February 2009 |
A third issue of The Economist magazine has be banned in Thailand in the space of 2 months. This came hot on the heels of the ban of the previous edition which contained an article about the jailed Australian writer and the kingdom's strict lese majeste law. The January 31 issue features an article titled "A Sad Slide Backwards," which criticizes the Thai army's alleged mishandling of hundreds of Rohingya refugees, and the army-backed government's reluctance to investigate the matter fully. The article claims that the same army colonel behind the refugee abuse allegations was also responsible for the torture of Muslim detainees in Thailand's strife-torn southern region. The plight of the refugees who claimed they were left adrift in the sea with inadequate supplies by the Thai military has gained much international attention. However, it has received little interest from the local media, which tends to focus more on the mounting political tension.
Reuters
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Expat news
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Friday, 30 January 2009 |
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 The distributor of the UK-based current affairs magazine The Economist has pulled all copies of the magazine's latest edition off the shelves in Thailand. This is the second time in two months that the magazine has been banned in the kingdom for fear of lese majeste charges. The latest issue contains an article about the Australian writer who was recently sentenced to a 3-year imprisonment for briefly referring to an unnamed crown prince in his little known novel. Shortly after being sworn in, the Thai government led by the Democrat party declared protecting the monarchy as its top priority. As a result, thousands of Web sites insulting the Thai royal family have been blocked, while several people, including a prominent university professor, are awaiting trial for allegedly insulting the monarchy.
BBC
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Expat news
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Thursday, 29 January 2009 |
 Fresh pictures released by CNN depicting Rohingya refugees crammed into a rickety boat with no engine have put more pressure on the Thai government to come clean on abuse allegations by the Thai Army. In the pictures, the refugees' boat was being towed out to sea allegedly by a Thai Army boat, before being cut loose and abandoned. A Rohingya man, who claimed he was on one of the six boats, said that his was the only boat that had made it to shore, while the other five boats sank. The pictures and eyewitness accounts from tourists contradict the Thai Army's earlier claim that there has been no inhumane treatment of the refugees. Of the 992 refugees who set off from Myanmar toward Thailand in December, 550 are thought to be missing and feared dead.
CNN
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Expat news
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Sunday, 25 January 2009 |
 Forty-one year-old Australian Harry Nicholaides has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for writing and publishing a book allegedly defaming the Thai monarchy. According to the presiding judge, Nicholaides' book Verisimilitude, published in 2005, "suggested that there was abuse of royal power." Fifty copies of the book were published; only 10 copies were sold. The book is not listed on any booksellers' Web sites. Nicholaides, a former journalist, entered Thailand in 2003 and had been teaching at Thai universities. He was arrested while boarding a plane home, apparently unaware that an arrest warrant had been issued against him. He had been detained in a Thai prison since August 31 and, according to his lawyer, had endured 'unspeakable suffering.' His sentence was halved to 3 years because he had pleaded guilty.
IHT
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