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Thai webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiporn was found guilty this morning of not deleting lse majest comments on the now defunct web board of the Thai news website Prachatai quickly enough she was sentenced to 1 year in prison, which was then reduced to an 8-month SUSPENDED sentence and a THB20,000 (US$630) fine.

In its verdict, the court states that Chiranuch has failed to delete one comment for 20 days, whereas the other nine objected comments were deleted within 10 days, thus violating against Article 14 and 15 of the 2007 Computer Crimes Actwhich punishes false data that damages a third party, causes public panic or undermines the countrys security and anyservice provider intentionally supporting the said offenses, respectively despite the fact that the court also statesthat the expectation to pre-emptively delete illegal comments was unfair.

Below is a full live timeline of the mornings events

Today at 10.00 AM (Bangkok time) the Thai Criminal Court will give its verdict againstChiranuch Jiew Premchaiporn, the webmaster of the news websitePrachatai. Chiranuch is being prosecuted for failing to delete 10 commentsmade by othersthat are deemed insulting to the monarchynot quickly enough. She has been arrestedin 2009andagain in 2011, while the website itself has been hit by numerous takedown orders and blocked repeatedly by authorities.

Chiranuch "Jiew" Premchaiporn, webmaster of the Thai news website Prachatai, awaiting her verdict at the Crminal Court in Bangkok, Thailand on April 30, 2012. Miss Chiarnuch has been charged for not deleting comments deemed insulting to the country's monarchy not quickly enough and could face 20 years in prison. (Picture: Twitter/@thainetizen)

If that paragraph above sounds familiar to you it should be: these are exactly the same words from the live-blog from the original verdict date one month ago. However, just mere 10 minutes before it was about to start, the courtdecidedto postpone the verdict, since it needed more time due to the complexity of the case.

A lot has happened since then, most notably the death of lse majest-victim Amphon Uncle SMS Tangnoppakul in prison and the lse majest complaint lodged against Prachatai columnist PravitRojanaphruk. In light of these events, Chiranuchs case could be an even more unprecedented moment that could really determine Thailands (dis-)regard for freedom of speech.

Ill live-blog and comment the verdict here and also try to gather as many as reactions as possible. Also, be sure to follow me on Twitter@Saksithfor up-to-the minute updates.

+++NOTE: All times are local Bangkok time (GMT +7)+++

12.13 h: That wraps up our live-blog. Todays verdict is a clear sign by the Thai state that freedom of expression doesnt really exist here. Besides directly cracking down on content that is deemed insulting, defaming to the monarchy or just simply not according to a dominant national narrative, the verdict also underlines the requirement to its citizen to self-censor to satisfy a pre-emptive obedience.

Continued here:
Thai webmaster Chiranuch found guilty, but avoids jail term

BANGKOK A court sentenced a Thai webmaster Wednesday to an eight-month suspended sentence for not moving quickly enough to delete online comments deemed insulting to the country's royalty in a case widely seen as a test of freedom of expression in Thailand.

While the ruling showed leniency, it also sent the message that Internet content in the Southeast Asian nation must be self-censored. Chiranuch Premchaiporn had faced up to 20 years in prison for failing to quickly remove 10 comments others had posted on her Prachatai news website.

She told reporters she found the verdict reasonable but still had thought she would be acquitted.

The case drew international concern over censorship of the Internet in general and the liability of a website operator for comments posted by a third party.

"Today's guilty verdict for Chiranuch Premchaiporn, for something somebody else wrote on her website, is a serious threat to the future of the Internet in Thailand," Taj Meadows, Asia Pacific spokesman for Internet services giant Google, said by email.

"Telephone companies are not penalized for things people say on the phone and responsible website owners should not be punished for comments users post on their sites," he wrote. "The precedent set today is bad for Thai businesses, users and the innovative potential of Thailand's Internet economy."

Chiranuch was prosecuted under Thailand's computer-crime laws, which were enacted in 2007 under an interim, unelected government that came to power after a coup a year earlier. The laws address hacking and other online offenses, but also bar the circulation of material deemed detrimental to national security, which includes defaming the monarchy.

Her case was inextricably linked to Thailand's fractious politics of recent years, as the country's traditional ruling class allying big business, the military and royalists has been desperately fighting to retain reverence for the monarchy and their influence over politics.

Most people still respect 84-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, but the evident involvement of palace circles in supporting the 2006 military coup against elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra opened the royal institution to unprecedented criticism, much of which was circulated on the Internet.

Bangkok Criminal Court Judge Kampol Rungrat said his guilty verdict was based on one particular post that was left on the Prachatai site for 20 days.

Read the original post:
Thai webmaster gets 8-month suspended sentence in case seen as test of free speech

By Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Daniel Ten Kate - 2012-05-30T05:06:45Z

Thai editor of the popular Prachatai news website, Chiranuch Premchaiporn smiles after the verdict at the Criminal Court in Bangkok on May 30,2012. A Thai court on May 30 convicted an online editor for hosting posts critical of the revered monarchy on her website, but suspended her jail sentence amid demands to reform the lese majeste law. Photograph: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/GettyImages

Thai editor of the popular Prachatai news website, Chiranuch Premchaiporn smiles after the verdict at the Criminal Court in Bangkok on May 30,2012. A Thai court on May 30 convicted an online editor for hosting posts critical of the revered monarchy on her website, but suspended her jail sentence amid demands to reform the lese majeste law. Photograph: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/GettyImages

A Thai court sentenced a webmaster to an eight-month suspended jail term today for failing to quickly remove royal insults from a Bangkok-based news website that has received U.S. government funding.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who manages the web-board for Prachatai, violated the Computer Crimes Act because she failed to erase the content deemed insulting to the monarchy, according to Bangkoks Criminal Court. Police charged her in 2009 under a crackdown initiated by former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and she faced as many as 20 years in prison, Human Rights Watch said in an April 24 statement.

The sentence is the latest in a growing number of convictions for royal insults that has prompted academics to call for revisions to the lese-majeste law, a move all of the countrys major political parties have denounced. The U.S., European Union and United Nations called on Thailand to respect freedom of speech following convictions last year.

The law, which falls under Article 112 of the criminal code, mandates jail sentences as long as 15 years for defaming, insulting or threatening the king, queen, heir apparent or regent. Yesterday the Campaign Committee for the Amendment of Article 112 submitted almost 30,000 signatures supporting a proposal to change the law, including reducing the maximum penalty to three years for insulting the king and two years for other family members, the Bangkok Post reported.

Prachatai is a non-profit daily web newspaper established in June 2004 that often includes articles about the monarchy. It has received $50,000 the past three years from the U.S.-taxpayer funded National Endowment for Democracy, according to its website.

To contact the reporters on this story: Suttinee Yuvejwattana in Bangkok at suttinee1@bloomberg.net; Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net

The rest is here:
Thai Webmaster Gets Suspended Jail Term Over Royal Insults

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai court handed an eight-month suspended sentence on Wednesday to a website editor for failing to quickly remove posts deemed offensive to the monarchy in a case that adds to growing debate over Thailand's draconian royal censorship laws.

The Bangkok Criminal Court ruled posts on the Prachatai news website (www.prachatai.com) were offensive to the royal family and that its editor, Chiranuch Premchaiporn, failed to remove them promptly, as requested by the court, allowing at least one to stay online for 20 days.

Thailand has some of the world's toughest lese majeste laws to penalise insults against the king, queen and crown prince, but critics say the legislation is used to discredit activists and politicians opposed to the royalist establishment.

Chiranuch, 44, was charged in 2010 in a crackdown on royal defamation under former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose supporters include Bangkok's traditional elite of top generals, royal advisers, middle-class bureaucrats and old-money families.

She faced a maximum 20 years in jail on 10 counts of supporting illegal content and violating the Computer Crimes Act, a controversial and wide-ranging law passed by a military-installed legislature following a 2006 coup.

The suspended sentence is a rare moment of leniency in a series of tough and highly criticised decisions by courts to protect the monarchy, an effort that has increased during what many see as the twilight of the reign of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand's long-hospitalised 84-year-old monarch.

"For someone involved in a lese-majeste content issue, this was a comparatively reasonable sentence," said David Streckfuss, a scholar and expert on Thailand's lese-majeste laws.

Many Thais revere the king, the world's longest-ruling monarch, and regard him as a unifying figure, but national unease over what follows his reign has added to recent political turbulence.

Deadly street riots, mob takeovers of airports and a coup in recent years reveal a country divided broadly between a yellow-shirted royalist elite and lower-income red-shirted supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, toppled in 2006.

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Webmaster gets suspended sentence in Thai royal insult case

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