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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

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Thai Webmaster Gets Suspended Jail Term Over Royal Insults