Thai News

2010: Oct-Dec

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28th December   

Sharia Parks...

Thailand threatens tourists with jail for having wine with their picnic in the park
Link Here

Most of Thailand's 110 national parks have been declared alcohol-free zones.

Not only will there be a ban on booze sales, but visitors will also be barred from bringing alcoholic drinks into the parks. Those violating the regulation will be punished with up to one month in jail and/or a Bt1,000 fine.

Natural Resource and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti told a news conference.

However, some senior officials said this might not apply at national parks where the private sector rents places for business, such as at Koh Samet.

The parks used to earlier seek the cooperation of visitors to avoid alcoholic drinks .

The measure follows a knee jerk reaction to the case of an engineering student who stabbed someone to death in Khao Yai National Park during a loud drinking party among student campers on December 26 Sunday.

 

25th December   

A Granny State...

Nanny state takes on a new meaning as Thailand considers raising the age of consent to 20
Link Here

  The legal age at which a woman can be taken as a sex partner will increase from 15 to 20 under a new proposal, as the government seeks new ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

The Social Development and Human Security Ministry has proposed to criminalise nearly all of Thailand's youth. He proposed an amendment to Section 277 of the criminal law which states that a man who has sex with a girl aged 15 or under shall be fined between 8,000 baht and 40,000 baht, and imprisoned from four to 20 years.

The girl's age should be more than 15 because girls aged 15 to 20 have not yet reached maturity, minister Issara Somchai claimed.

The change may upset some groups, but the law is designed to punish the wrongdoer. If you observe the law, there's no reason to be afraid. Our society always blames the girl, which is wrong.

The recent discovery of 2,002 aborted foetuses at Wat Phai Ngern Chotanaram in Bang Kholaem district of Bangkok has drawn attention to unwanted pregnancies. The foetuses, the result of illegal abortions, were transported to the temple from underground clinics.

The minister said five groups of women were particularly at risk of unwanted pregnancies: primary and lower secondary school students, women who live in slum communities, who live in dormitories, young factory workers and the homeless. [sounds like the answer may lie more in raising living standards rather than sending Thai lads to jail]

Cabinet has approved six strategies for tackling the problem, including more assistance and rehabilitation for pregnant women. Issara said the strategies would be piloted in Kamphaeng Phet, which has the highest number of young mothers aged under 20.

 

20th October   

Cold But Free...

Reporters Without Borders publish world league table of press freedom
Link Here

More than half of the EU's 27 countries score badly in the annual press freedom index carried out by the Paris-based NGO Reporters without Borders - a negative trend compared to previous years, even though three EU members are the freest places in the world in which to be a journalist.

It is disturbing to see several European Union member countries continuing to fall in the index. If it does not pull itself together, the EU risks losing its position as world leader in respect for human rights, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-Francois Julliard said in a statement accompanying the study.

Thirteen of the EU's 27 members are in the world top 20. But some of the other 14 stand very low while the gap between good and bad performers continues to widen, the report says.

The poor performers include France and Italy, where events in the past year – violation of the protection of journalists' sources, concentration of media ownership, displays of contempt by government officials and judicial summonses - continue to follow a negative line.

Italy, where some 10 journalists still live under police protection, stayed in 49th place out of 178, scoring worse than Bosnia and sharing the same position as Burkina Faso.

Greece got the worst marks in the EU, plummeting a huge 35 places to 70, where it now sits alongside the bloc's other meida villain, Bulgaria.

The Greek plunge is due to political unrest and related physical attacks on journalists. Athens was also criticised for political meddling, going so far as to ask the German government to apologise for nasty headlines about the Greek economic crisis in the Stern magazine.

Romania went down two places to 52. Reporters Without Borders noted that the government now considers the media a threat to national security and plans to censor activities.

At the top end, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands share the pole position with non-EU members Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. The group-of-six has held the top score since the index was created in 2002.

Iceland won special praise for its bill, the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), to provide a unique level of legal protection for reporters.

In Denmark, which holds 11th place, murder attempts against Mohammed cartoonists Kurt Westergaard and Lars Vilks, could create a climate of self-censorship, Reporters Without Borders warned.

The survey also pointed to serious violations on the EU's doorstep.

EU candidate Turkey was placed in 138th place, next to Ethiopia (139) and Russia (140). The NGO spoke of a frenzied proliferation of lawsuits [and] incarcerations of reporters.

EU aspirant Ukraine placed at 131. Censorship has signalled its return, particularly in the audiovisual sector, the study said on the return to power of Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukoych.

Elsewhere the Philippines, Ukraine, Greece and Kyrgyzstan all fell sharply in this year's index. In the Philippines this was due to the massacre of around 30 journalists by a local baron, in Ukraine to the slow and steady deterioration in press freedom since Viktor Yanukovych's election as president in February, in Greece to political unrest and physical attacks on several journalists, and in Kyrgyzstan to the ethnic hatred campaign that accompanied the political turmoil.

India's and Thailand's rankings drop due to a breakout of serious violence Political violence has produced some very troubling tumbles in the rankings. Thailand (153rd) – where two journalists were killed and some fifteen wounded while covering the army crackdown on the red shirts movement in Bangkok – lost 23 places, while India slipped to 122nd place (-17) mainly due to extreme violence in Kashmir.

1 Finland  
- Iceland
- Netherlands  
- Norway
- Sweden  
- Switzerland
7 Austria
8 New Zealand
9 Estonia
- Ireland
11 Denmark drop
- Japan
- Lithuania
14 Belgium
- Luxembourg
- Malta
17 Germany
18 Australia
19 United Kingdom
20 United States of America  
21 Canada
- Namibia rise
23 Hungary
- Czech Republic
25 Jamaica
26 Cape Verde rise
- Ghana
- Mali
29 Costa Rica
30 Latvia drop
- Trinidad and Tobago
32 Poland
33 Chile
34 Hong-Kong rise
35 Slovakia
- Surinam
37 Uruguay
38 South Africa
39 Spain
40 Portugal drop
41 Tanzania rise
42 South Korea rise
- Papua New Guinea rise
44 France
45 Cyprus drop
46 Slovenia
47 Bosnia and Herzegovina
48 Taiwan rise
49 Burkina Faso
- Italy  
51 El Salvador rise
52 Maldives
- Romania
54 Paraguay  
55 Argentina
56 Haiti
57 Eastern Caribbean States  
58 Brazil rise
59 Guyana drop
60 Togo
61 Cyprus (North) drop
62 Botswana  
- Croatia rise
64 Bhutan
65 Mauritius drop
- Seychelles
67 Guinea-Bissau rise
68 Macedonia drop
69 Central African Republic rise
70 Benin
- Bulgaria
- Comoros rise
- Greece drop
- Kenya rise
75 Moldova rise
76 Mongolia rise
77 Guatemala rise
78 Lebanon drop
79 Malawi drop
80 Albania
81 Panama drop
82 Zambia rise
83 Nicaragua
84 Liberia drop
85 Serbia drop
86 Israel (Israeli territory)
87 United Arab Emirates
- Kuwait drop
- Tonga  
90 Lesotho
91 Sierra Leone rise
92 Kosovo drop
93 Senegal
- Timor-Leste drop
95 Mauritania
96 Uganda drop
97 Dominican Republic
98 Mozambique drop
99 USA (extra-territorial)
- Georgia drop
101 Armenia rise
- Ecuador drop
103 Bolivia
104 Angola rise
- Montenegro drop
- Niger rise
107 Gabon rise
108 Burundi
109 Peru drop
110 Djibouti  
111 Samoa  
112 Chad rise
113 Guinea drop
114 Congo
115 Tajikistan
116 Madagascar rise
117 Indonesia drop
118 Côte d’Ivoire drop
119 Nepal
120 Jordan
121 Qatar drop
122 India drop
123 Zimbabwe rise
124 Oman drop
125 Gambia rise
126 Bangladesh
127 Egypt rise
128 Cambodia drop
129 Cameroon drop
130 Iraq rise
131 Ukraine drop
132 Israel (extra-territorial) rise
133 Algeria
- Venezuela
135 Morocco
136 Mexico
- Singapore
138 Turkey drop
139 Ethiopia
140 Russia rise
141 Malaysia drop
142 Brunei rise
143 Honduras drop
144 Bahrein drop
145 Colombia drop
- Nigeria drop
147 Afghanistan
148 Democratic Republic of Congo
149 Fiji
150 Palestinian Territories rise
151 Pakistan
152 Azerbaijan
153 Thailand drop
154 Belarus
155 Swaziland drop
156 Philippines drop
157 Saudi Arabia
158 Sri Lanka
159 Kyrgyzstan drop
160 Libya
161 Somalia
162 Kazakhstan drop
163 Uzbekistan
164 Tunisia drop
165 Vietnam
166 Cuba
167 Equatorial Guinea
168 Laos
169 Rwanda drop
170 Yemen
171 China
172 Sudan drop
173 Syria
174 Burma
175 Iran
176 Turkmenistan
177 North Korea
178 Eritrea

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