The first instance of censorship in Thailand occurred with the advent of the first printing press in the country. Thailand's first law book was banned and all copies and the original manuscript were ordered destroyed. According to a study by the Political Science Library at
Thammasat University, from 1850 to 1999, 1,057 books and periodicals were officially banned by publication in the
Royal Gazette, including many books among the "100 books every Thai should read". Many titles reflect their era of anti-communist fervor but were published both in Thailand and abroad in Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Bahasa, English, German, French, and Spanish. Historically, this and other acts have been used to severely restrict press freedom, especially during the military governments of
Plaek Pibulsonggram,
Sarit Dhanarajata, and
Thanom Kittikachorn (up to 1973). Books on Thai
feudalism, the monarchy, and religion viewed by the Thai government as disruptive were banned and their authors imprisoned. A student-led uprising in 1973 led to a brief period of press freedom, until a violent military crackdown in 1976 resulted in a major clamp-down. The 1980s saw the gradual thawing of press censorship.
Books Sarakadee Magazine has published a three part overview of book censorship in Thailand. Unless critical of the royal family, monarchy or sensitive government issues, foreign and domestic books normally are not censored and circulate freely. All public discussion of the death of 20-year-old King
Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII), the previous king's elder brother, of a single gunshot wound to the head is discouraged and not taught in schools even to history majors. ''
The Devil's Discus'' by
Rayne Kruger (London: Cassell, 1964), a result of investigative reporting, which examines the case of King Ananda, was immediately banned and its author barred from Thailand. Curiously, neither the book's Japanese or Thai translation (in 1972) have been banned. However, the first 16 pages of all extant copies of ''The Devil's Discus'' in Thai have been excised and seem to have no text corresponding to the English original. Widely considered to be the father of Thai democracy,
Pridi Banomyong was a writer of the first Thai constitution in 1932 which transformed Thailand from an
absolute monarchy to a
constitutional monarchy. In addition, he was twice prime minister, a wartime underground hero who fought the Japanese occupation of Thailand, and the founder of
Thammasat University. However, Pridi was brought under suspicion of
regicide in the death of King Ananda by his chief political rival, strongman military Prime Minister
Plaek Pibulsonggram and was forced to flee into exile with his chief aide-de-camp (and Ananda's), Vacharachai Chaisittiwet. Vacharachai's brother became the Thai translator of ''The Devil's Discus'' in an attempt to clear his name. Most Thais today have forgotten that
Pridi Banomyong, the father of Thai democracy, died in exile. Three royal servants were executed without warning and in secrecy for regicide in 1955, nine years after King Ananda's death, after many acquittals and subsequent prosecution appeals with little evidence, old or new, but which resulted in fresh convictions for all three in Thailand's highest court. The entire legal case appears to have been predicated on hearsay and the motivation political, purely to keep Pridi out of the picture. King
Bhumibol (Rama IX), a young, untested monarch at the time, failed to exercise his royal prerogative of pardon for the three prisoners, despite the many questionable facets to the case.
The Revolutionary King by
William Stevenson (London: Constable, 1999) was initiated by King Bhumibol as a semi-official hagiography. King Bhumibhol had translated Stevenson's book,
A Man Called Intrepid, into Thai and reportedly admired Stevenson's work. In any case, Stevenson was granted unprecedented personal access to both the King himself and members of the royal family. However, when the published book appeared, not only was it riddled with simple inaccuracies, but it shocked many Thai readers by referring to the king throughout the book by his childhood nickname, Lek. The book presented a unique new theory of Japanese involvement in the death of King Ananda. Not known is whether this theory originated with King Bhumibol. The book was unofficially banned in Thailand from the date of its publication. However, in 2005, reportedly through royal intervention, the book could be ordered from bookstores in Thailand, but no bookstore has been willing to stock it. A more recent controversy has occurred over
The King Never Smiles (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2006) by a former Bangkok-based correspondent, Paul Handley, described by its publishers as an "interpretive biography" of King Bhumibol. The book itself was banned in Thailand on its publication in July 2006 and websites selling the book were blocked from November 2005. No advance reading copies or excerpts of the book were made available by its publishers. In November 2014, Thai police announced the banning of
A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailand’s Struggle for Democracy in the Twenty-First Century by
Andrew MacGregor Marshall, prior to its release in Thailand. Police stated that reviews of the book in
The Independent and the
South China Morning Post had provided sufficient evidence that the book threatens "peace and order, and the good morality of the people". Marshall claims that recent turmoil in Thai politics is driven largely by internal conflicts over succession to the throne. Any discussion of the royal succession is taboo in Thailand. More recent reviews are divided as to whether Marshall has convincingly made his point that succession is the key to understanding Thai politics. One example of censoring media of foreign origin is the case of
Bangkok Inside Out, a tourist guide, which, according to the Ministry of Culture, "taints the image of Thailand and its people". Most censored books are in Thai, published in Thailand. At the same time, most books since 1999 are banned "unofficially" which makes gathering censorship data difficult. A good example of this modern variety of unofficial Thai censorship is the book
The Images of Pridi Banomyong and Thai Politics 1932–1983, written by Morakot Jaewjinda as her master's thesis in history at Srinakharinwirot University. Although Morakot's thesis was published in 1987, the criminal defamation case against her by
Khunying (a Thai royal decoration of recognition) Nongyao Chaiseree, former rector of
Thammasat University, is only starting to be heard in court in 2007.
Self-censorship is a growing trend in Thailand. In February 2007,
Chula Book Centre, the bookstore of
Chulalongkorn University, refused to carry the book
The 19 September Coup: A Coup for a Democratic Regime Under the Constitutional Monarchy, an anthology critical of
Thailand's 2006 military coup d'état written in Thai by leading intellectuals and academics, including
Nidhi Eoseewong,
Somsak Jeamtheerasakul,
Thongchai Winichakul, and Sulak Sivaraksa. A few Thai language bookstores did sell the book, however, and reported brisk sales. Later in the month, Chula Book Centre and CU Books reneged on their agreement to both sell and distribute
A Coup for the Rich primarily because some of the sources quoted were from
The King Never Smiles. The book was written by Dr.
Giles Ji Ungpakorn, professor at Chulalongkorn's Faculty of Political Science. On 6 March, Thammasat University Bookstore followed suit in refusing to sell the book even though it had not been officially banned, although the university's rector overturned that decision and the book is now for sale at the university bookstore. A
Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand panel concluded that it should be anticipated that
A Coup for the Rich would be confiscated and banned. Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) has initiated the Banned Books Project to scan as many books banned in Thailand as possible for free publication on the Web, beginning with books in several languages about the death of King Ananda. During the existence of the
Communist Party of Thailand, books pertaining to communism and socialism (references to
Karl Marx,
Friedrich Engels,
Vladimir Lenin,
Josif Stalin,
Lev Trotsky, or
Mao Zedong) and associated publications, e.g.,
The Communist Manifesto,
Das Kapital were banned—to the extent of not using and/or teaching it in social sciences courses nor to
sociology majors. This also extended to publications involving
proletarian revolution usually associated with Maoist organizations associated with the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. Individuals in possession of communist literature (books, print/electronic media, academic journals, audio, video footage) would be found guilty of treason against the Thai government.
Periodicals The press has also been censored for publishing news damaging to the monarchy. Thai governments have been accused of pressuring the press to limit damaging coverage. A 2002 issue of
The Economist was withheld because it made an "inappropriate" reference to the monarchy.
Fah Diew Kan, a political and social commentary magazine was prohibited and sellers charged with lèse-majesté under the military junta-appointed government of Prime Minister
Surayud Chulanont. Defamation and lèse-majesté laws are commonly used for censorship and political suppression in Thailand, as is a law prohibiting discussion or criticism of Thai court decisions.
Sulak Sivaraksa, perhaps predictably, wrote a review of
The King Never Smiles in English for his
Seeds of Peace magazine published by the International Network of Engaged Buddhists in Bangkok. On 6 August 2005, the
Bangkok Post published a front-page story on cracks in
Suvarnabhumi Airport's west runway. Citing unnamed sources, the article noted that aviation experts recommended reconstruction to repair large cracks. A newspaper internal investigation found that while there were small cracks on the shoulders of the runway, its source wrongly claimed experts believed the runway needed reconstruction. The anonymous source, who claimed to be a businessman whose brother was close to some members of the prime minister's
Thai Rak Thai party, refused to confirm his comments. Chief reporter Sermsuk Kasitipradit and news editor Chadin Thepaval were found to have acted negligently in publishing the story and were fired. Some critics in the newspaper claimed that the source was pressured by the government not to confirm the details of the story. Also in August 2005, Rungruang Preechakul, editor of
Siam Rath Weekly News Magazine, quit after covering alleged government mishandling of the
bird flu crisis. On 10 March 2006 the then-governor of Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Mr. Pongpayome Wasaputi, during a regular scheduled press conference with the local media, asked Frank G. Anderson, founder of the
Korat Post newspaper, to "kindly refrain from carrying any more headlines regarding events at
Watpa Salawan, because it is like irritating an old sore." The governor was referring to coverage of allegations of sexual impropriety against the temple's abbot, Luang Pho Pherm, who had a considerable official following. In 2006, Tongnoi Tongyai, the private secretary to
Crown Prince Maha
Vajiralongkorn, was about to be appointed to the board of directors of
Shin Corporation when his appointment was shot down by the palace.
Post Today, a Thai-language sister paper of the
Bangkok Post, had to pull thousands of copies after publishing a story quoting a leftist academic asking the press to investigate why Tongnoi was dismissed in such a strange manner. Vajiralongkorn called a group of reporters to the palace, where he reportedly asked them: "Do you have a problem with me?". No one replied. On 10 February 2010 it was learned that the children of
Thaksin Shinawatra would petition the supreme court to gag the media on speculation of a pending judgment of the deposed prime minister's assets. Subsequently, popular English-language expatriate forums such as
Thai Visa broadcast warnings that they were censored. Readers were advised to follow them on Twitter and other social media platforms to receive related news. On 12 Nov 2014, in a meeting between junta representatives and the editors of 17 newspapers, military officers reportedly told the journalists that there is a limit to what they can report. "Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Prime Minister and NCPO leader, has never censored the media. We are open, but please stay within the limits. [We] don’t want any colour. [You media] must report news positively," Lt Gen Suchai Pongput was quoted as saying. == Internet ==