Why would anyone want to visit Thailand if the experience of an Australian author is anything to go by?
BBC News reports on what ought to be regarded as an outrage on just about every level one can think of:
"Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in a Thai jail for insulting the monarchy.
Nicolaides wrote a novel four years ago, which contained a brief passage referring to an unnamed crown prince. It sold just seven copies.
He admitted the charge of insulting the royal family, but said he was unaware he was committing an offence. Thailand's monarchy is sheltered from public debate by some of the world's most stringent "lese-majeste" laws."
And:
"But he is just one of a growing number of people being investigated and charged under Thailand's draconian "lese-majeste" law, as the police and army try to suppress what they fear is a rising tide of anti-monarchy sentiment.
More than 3,000 websites have now been blocked, and one political activist was jailed for six years in November for an anti-monarchy speech she made just a stone's throw from the old royal palace last July.
Several other people are now awaiting trial.
As a repentant foreigner, Harry Nicolaides does at least have a good chance of being pardoned by the king, according to the BBC correspondent in Bangkok, Jonathan Head.
The king did the same for a Swiss man given a 10-year sentence two years ago for defacing his portrait."
BBC News reports on what ought to be regarded as an outrage on just about every level one can think of:
"Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in a Thai jail for insulting the monarchy.
Nicolaides wrote a novel four years ago, which contained a brief passage referring to an unnamed crown prince. It sold just seven copies.
He admitted the charge of insulting the royal family, but said he was unaware he was committing an offence. Thailand's monarchy is sheltered from public debate by some of the world's most stringent "lese-majeste" laws."
And:
"But he is just one of a growing number of people being investigated and charged under Thailand's draconian "lese-majeste" law, as the police and army try to suppress what they fear is a rising tide of anti-monarchy sentiment.
More than 3,000 websites have now been blocked, and one political activist was jailed for six years in November for an anti-monarchy speech she made just a stone's throw from the old royal palace last July.
Several other people are now awaiting trial.
As a repentant foreigner, Harry Nicolaides does at least have a good chance of being pardoned by the king, according to the BBC correspondent in Bangkok, Jonathan Head.
The king did the same for a Swiss man given a 10-year sentence two years ago for defacing his portrait."
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