“His Majesty the King is revered by Thais and admired by foreigners from afar because of his intrinsic goodness and dedication to improving the people’s livelihood, yet many foreign friends of Thailand are now casting doubt on the broad application of lese majeste.

Authorities may have intended to achieve deterrence from offending and disrespecting the revered institution, but the international community sees a witch-hunt.”

– An extract from “Harry Nicolaides and lese majeste”, The Nation, 1 March 2009.

By the title I wonder (in passing) if this is meant as the inversion, or some such, of a piece that appeared many moons ago. It would have been nice if at that time the editors of The Nation tasked some of their reporters to chase the Nicolaides story. As far as I’m aware they never sought to do any investigation while he was locked up. As such, their current call to find “some common ground” is unimpressive.

For The Nation employees who do drop by may I suggest that this website or this one will give you a few leads if you are actually serious about pursuing the issue of lèse majesté. It has not ended with Harry Nicolaides or Giles Ji Ungpakorn.