Concern about the arrest of the prominent Thai journalist, Pravit Rojanaphruk, is growing. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has joined the chorus of protests at his military detention.
The Guardian reported on Monday that Pravit had been held after being summoned by representatives of Thailand’s junta, known as the National Council for Peace and Order.
After disappearing inside army headquarters in Bangkok, reporters were told Pravit had been detained because of articles that “could cause confusion and misunderstandings” and for “presenting information that is not in keeping with the (junta) guidelines promoting peace and order”.
It was therefore necessary, said a junta spokesman, for Pravit to undergo “attitude adjustment”. He has been held incommunicado.
“The detention of Pravit Rojanaphruk is the strongest indication so far of the National Council for Peace and Order’s intention to suppress critical comment about the way it is running Thailand,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator. He called for his immediate release.
Pravit has written stories criticising Thailand’s lèse majesté law and has been critical of the 2014 military coup. On Saturday (12 September), Pravit posted a tweet about a visit to his house by two military officers while he was out.
The following day, in his last tweet before his detention, he wrote: “Freedom can’t be maintained if we’re not willing to defend it”.
The Nation’s editor-in-chief, Thepchai Yong, said of Pravit’s detention that it amounted to “a direct threat to press freedom”, adding: “If the military believes he has done something wrong, there are normal legal channels to deal with it”.
Pravit, a former Chevening scholar at Oxford University and a Reuters fellow, was held by the Thai authorities for seven days in May 2014.
Sources: CPJ/The Guardian/Straits Times/The Nation
