Deepali Kalia-
Published on: August 11, 2021 at 16:54 IST
The Thai government was compelled by a Court injunction to rescind an order which had outlawed the circulating of news that ‘causes public fear’ even if the news was true.
The Civil Court in Thailand had issued an injunction against the Order last week and the government as a result revoked the Order.
The regulations had forbidden people from sharing ‘Information causing public fear’ or sharing ‘Distorted information causing misunderstanding which affects national stability’.
“I think the government realizes it is now facing a credibility crisis because of this disastrous response to the Covid situation, but instead of trying to find better solutions, more efficient solutions, it chooses to gag anyone from speaking about its failures”, Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher on Thailand in Human Rights Watch, Asia division said.
“This provision doesn’t care about accuracy or whether it is true or false,” Phasuk added.
The Thai government is facing growing public anger at the handling of the new wave of COVID-19, which began in April and is said to be the most severe the country has experienced since the start of the pandemic.
The recent wave which is driven by the Delta variant has caused more than 6,500 deaths and has put the health system of the country under intense pressure.
The slow vaccination campaign by the government is also being highly criticized by the public as only about 6% of the population has been fully vaccinated till now.
Thousands of protestors to protest the poor handling of the pandemic had taken to the streets over the weekend with police firing teargas, rubber bullets, and water cannon at them to disperse them.
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