Half a tonne of crystal methamphetamine seized – street value 1 Billion Baht

Thailand’s Appeal Court has granted bail to a number of anti-government protesters and protest leaders, on condition there is no repeat of the offences they’re accused of. They must also report to the court every 2 weeks. Those released include Chaiamorn Kaewwiboonpan, the singer-songwriter known as “Ammy”, as well as Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, spokesperson for the Student Union of Thailand, Natchanon Pirote, a protester arrested alongside Panusaya, and Parit Chiwarak, aka, “Penguin”.

Yesterday’s three “pop up” protests were held outside of central Bangkok and again surprised police. The protest gatherings all attracted up to 2,000 people each and were held, and then dispersed, peacefully, without police intervention.

The 3 protest leaders, Parit, Panusaya, and Natchanon, were detained for their role in political rallies held at Thammasat University’s Rangsit Campus between July 27 and August 10. They have been charged with sedition, violating the Covid-19 emergency decree by holding an illegal gathering, using an amplifier without authority to do so, and breaking the Computer Crimes Act. The other protesters granted temporary release were arrested the day after they attended an anti-government rally at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument on October 13. They are being charged with several offences, including violating the emergency decree and breaching traffic regulations.

Also granted temporary release is pro-democracy medic, Tossaporn Serirak, formerly of the Pheu Thai Party. He was arrested on Friday for helping injured protesters in Bangkok. Yesterday, he was granted bail by a Bangkok court, after he too was charged with violating the emergency decree. His release is dependent on him not repeating the offence and reporting to the court when summonsed to do so.

Tossaporn has allegedly been showing up at rallies to provide first-aid treatment when required, and says he will continue to fight for democracy. Nation Thailand reports that on Friday, he was seen berating authorities for their treatment of unarmed protesters, while offering to treat those affected by irritants from water cannons at the Police General Hospital.

SOURCE: Nation Thailand

Art meets politics again, this time with hundreds of thousands of K-Pop fans raising funds in support of the growing student protest movement in Thailand. So far they’ve raised more than 3 million baht (as of 10am this morning) but the amount is rising quickly as Thai and overseas K-Pop fans respond. The most popular band in Thailand at the moment is BTS, the South Korean septet which is currently the most popular band in the world (as of today BTS commands the Number 1 and Number 2 positions on the US Billboard singles chart).

BTS fans have so far been the largest contributors donating funds to the protest cause.

The BTS Thailand page, not to be confused with the BTS Skytrain, is urging K-pop fans to stop the practice of paying for billboards in support of their favourite idols and to celebrate the birthdays of the 7 members. RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook issued a statement on their fanpage asking fans to stop funding the BTS and MRT “inconvenienced protesters and normal citizens from getting home and putting them in danger”.

Bangkok’s two main rail systems were closed down over the weekend as police and protesters played a cat and mouse game. The protesters were withholding the announcement of protest locations to the last minute whilst police second-guessed their moves, ending up in mass inconvenience for the wider public in shutting down the entire network, including the Airport link.

“We’re calling Armys and other fans to stop buying ad projects with the BTS and MRT.” (“Army” is the name of BTS fans.

Fans of K-pop groups as well as other “idol” groups often pool their resources to purchase display ads in the MRT and BTS stations wishing their stars happy birthday or on other significant anniversaries.

It’s thought that many more millions of baht will be raised by the K-Pop fans in the next few days.

The young Thai protesters are tapping into a strong social media network, and have “weaponised” the social media and messaging platforms. The main App they are now using, to communicate their intentions, is “Telegram”, developed by a young Russian couple but now operating out of Germany. The App features encypted messages, impossible to track, and has 400 million monthly active users.

Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging, video telephony and voice over IP service with end-to-end encryption for secret chat only, whereas Cloud chat uses client-server/server-client encryption and its messages are stored encrypted in the Telegram Cloud – Wikipedia

Meanwhile, other K-Pop acts that have mobilised their fans win support include Girls’ Generation, GOT7, NCT, WannaOne, Nu’est, X1, Day 6, Red Velvet, MonstaC, Woodz, Shinee, Super Junior and R1se. We’re sure the fans of Black Pink are also contributing but didn’t have their figures available at the time of publishing. Fans of popular Thai actors and celebrities are also donating to the pool.

Police are now cracking down on local media outlets covering the pro-democracy protests as well as activist group Facebook pages because they are a “threat to national security”. In addition to the police’s request to ban the content, the Digital Economy and Society Ministry is attempting to censor the Telegram social media application, saying it too poses a “threat to national security.”

The young Thai protesters are tapping into a strong social media network, and have “weaponised” the social and messaging platforms. The main App they are now using, to communicate their intentions, is “Telegram”, developed by a young Russian couple but now operating out of Germany. The App features encypted messages, impossible to track, and has 400 million monthly active users.

Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging, video telephony and voice over IP service with end-to-end encryption for secret chat only, whereas Cloud chat uses client-server/server-client encryption and its messages are stored encrypted in the Telegram Cloud – Wikipedia

The Free Youth movement Facebook page, which is run by pro-democracy activists, as well as Voice TV, Prachatai, The Reporters and The Standard could be shut down or censored following the warnings (the Free Youth Facebook page is still available as of 8.30pm Monday). National Police Chief Suwat Jangyodsuk signed an order, which circulated on social media, requesting the Telecommunications Commission and the Digital Economy and Society Ministry to ban those media outlets and the Facebook page.

The State of Emergency imposed early last Thursday morning bans public gatherings of more than 5 people, but also allows authorities to ban media that is considered a threat to national security.

Earlier this morning, a journalist from The Reporters said the order was not yet official and she would continue doing her duty and report on the pro-democracy protests.

Many other journalists as well as protesters and critics have spoken up against the move to silence the media. The former finance minister and government critic Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala posted on his Facebook page saying Thailand was taking steps back to a “complete dictatorship.”

Over the weekend the Bangkok Post also came under fire for reporting false information about the reason for the closedown of the BTS and MRT networks on Saturday. They eventually were forced into a retraction of the misinformation. One of their reporters, who had been covering the protests on Facebook Live feeds, has also been either dismissed or has resigned, over his “commentary” that was out of step with the Post’s editorial framework.

The government has ordered to censor @prachatai, @thereportersth, @thestandardth, and @FreeYOUTHth. #saveสื่อเสรี tops Thailand’s Twitter.

Honored to report accurate info about human rights and political development in Thailand, we'll try our best in continuing to do so. pic.twitter.com/d6uc8PinzF

— Prachatai English (@prachatai_en) October 19, 2020

SOURCES: Bangkok Post | Nation Thailand