Continuing crackdown on
Foreign Correspondents Club
In recent weeks, the junta, known as the
National Council for Peace and Order, has closed down planned discussions of
Thailand’s draconian lese majeste law. On June 4, the junta blocked another
FCCT panel discussion sponsored by Thai Lawyers for Human Rights on the
country’s human rights situation. Directly after the coup on May 22, 2014, the
junta not only stopped a discussion but entered the club, on the 17th floor of a Bangkok office building, to arrest a speaker allied with the
ousted Pheu Thai government.
The club is considered the oldest and most
prestigious in Southeast Asia and has been known widely for its weekly forums,
drawing speakers as illustrious as the Dalai Lama, now-jailed Malaysian
opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and many others.
Jonathan Head, the club’s president, put out a
notice this week that “the FCCT has been alerted to reports of journalists
encountering difficulties when trying to start, renew or change their
accreditation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some of these problems
relate to online registration on the MOFA website, and some to the
accreditation process itself.”
The FCCT, head said, “is already in discussion
with the ministry of foreign affairs over some of these issues. In order for us
to have a more accurate picture of how widespread they are, we would be
grateful if anyone who has experienced problems to inform us and give us some
details of what happened.”
Although the Human Rights Watch press
conference was shut down, the 33-page report on mistreatment of Montagnard
Christians can be found here: Persecuting ‘Evil Way’ Religion: Abuses against Montagnards in Vietnam.
Asia Times
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