Thai Officials Want To Silence Critics, Scholar Charged With Insulting Monarchy

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth Capt Tom Brown Gentlemen, sorry for the delay in response. I wanted to look into it on my end so I could comment on it intelligently. All charges against him were officially dropped on January 17, 2018.

That being said, I have seen and heard Thais talk about the Monarchy in private, but never in public. Public criticism is highly taboo, both legally and culturally. It does still happen, but indirectly. I do not know what the exact term for them is, but I have heard them called "Remonstrances to the State". What makes this case interesting is that criminal lèse-majesté is normally applied to the current monarch, not to those from history.

On a side note, if you can find the King Naresuan movies with English subtitles, I highly recommend them.

I hope this all made sense.

A person should avoid 'insulting' the monarchy in many of this type of country and there are still a good number of them left in the world today. Highlights the differences between them and US, where political enemies trash their elected leaders on a low and personal level every day under the guise of freedom of speech.

Thank you for the npr share.