ABSTRACT
Press freedom in Thailand has reached a critical level since the political crisis began over a decade ago. But even during peaceful times, political leaders continued to suppress media freedom in order to defend their political interests. From 2014, the year that saw the coup overthrowing the elected government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the press situation has gone from bad to worse. The military government of General Prayuth Chan-ocha has set up new legal instruments to restrict the media freedom. For example, while the lèse-majesté law, or law that prevents anyone from criticizing the monarchy, has been exploited to silence critics of the royal institution, the military government enacted the Computer Crime Act in 2017 as an extra measure to punish media scrutiny. This chapter explores the different tactics used by the military regime in curbing media freedom. It also discusses the emergence of social media as a new source of competing information among users in Thailand.
