Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday it condemns today’s decision by a Bangkok appeal court to uphold Prachatainews website editor Chiranuch Premchaiporn’s May 2012 conviction on a charge of lèse-majesté for failing to remove anti-monarchist comments from the site quickly enough.
“This ruling sets a dangerous precedent for editors, who could now be held responsible for the comments that visitors post on their sites,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The judicial system’s obstinacy is appalling, but the fight for freedom of information must not be abandoned. We will keep on condemning use of lèse-majesté charges to persecute critics of the monarchy.”
The court also upheld the eight-month suspended prison sentence that Chiranuch received at the original trial, arguing that, as an experienced journalist, she should have known that “criminals” often use the Internet to attack the monarchy and that it is every Thai citizen’s duty to defend the royal family.
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