Making fun of Thailand is illegal

[Smeg]

Any mention of Bangkok Phil publishing his Bangkokmouth book has long been erased from his forum.

I originally thought that this was because the book "bangkok Inside Out" had beaten him to it with hundreds of pages of funmaking and irony-raising about Thailand. However, that book vanished from the shelves of thai bookshops only after only a few months, so he probably realised that he wouldnt make any sales.

It seems that making fun of thai culture is illegal

Bangkok Inside Out - Equinox Publishing
Racy Book on Bangkok Pulled from Shelves as Official Suffers Attack of Prudery
By Simon Montlake
A glossy coffee-table book on Bangkok has been pulled from bookstores after a government official objected to its depiction of the city's infamous go-go bars and other "negative subjects".

The book, Bangkok Inside Out, was published last year to critical acclaim and had sold briskly. But in the past two weeks, Thai bookstores have been clearing copies from their shelves after reportedly being warned they could be prosecuted for selling them.
The skirmish over the book, published by Jakarta-based Equinox Publishing, is the latest sign of intolerance by officials of critical reporting and appears to flout the press freedoms guaranteed by the nation's 1997 constitution.
Ladda Tangsuphachai, director of cultural monitoring at the Ministry of Culture, ordered the clampdown and has asked police to consider legal action against the authors, Guy Sharett, an Israeli national, and Daniel Ziv, a Canadian writer based in Jakarta.
Ms Ladda complained to a Thai-language newspaper that the book had focused too much on "fake goods, gambling and gay performances", as well as nightclub zones such as Patpong and Nana.
In particular, she objected to a photo of a foreigner with a bare-breasted bar girl on his lap in one section of the book.
"According to the constitution, the press has the freedom to publish. So all we can do is to take the problematic books off the shelves," she said.

Apparently, criticising court judgements in public is also illegal. Four of those found in the below story were imprisoned.

Shortlist for EC candidates submitted on Aug 10

In related incident, the Criminal Court has asked 16 people who were filmed slandering the court over its verdict on the former elecฌtion commissioners to report to the court.

The court has asked the Huay Kwang district police to help idenฌtify the 16 men and women, who were seen in TV news footage. They face a fine of Bt2,000Bt4,000 and a jail sentence of up to seven years.

[kingwilly]

I've got the Jakarta Inside out book and its quite good in a simplistic sort of way...

I did think of buying the Bangkok one, (i've seen it here) but thought that it would be quite similar (despite being different countries)

[Begbie]

Ladda Tangsuphachai

Chinese by any chance ?

[Norton]

Ladda Tangsuphachai

Without a doubt. She probably owns competitive businesses not mentioned in the book.