<p>An open-air film screening initiated by Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt turned sour last week when a group of activists at the event said they were blocked from displaying balloons with a slogan calling for abolition of the royal defamation law.&nbsp;</p>

<p>After a failed attempt a decade ago to amend or abolish the section of the Criminal Code that punishes people for defaming, insulting or threatening members of the monarchy, new calls have emerged questioning the monarch&rsquo;s role in Thai democracy and have faced legal harassment.</p>

<p>Since 2017, King Rama X has issued at least 112 royal edicts appointing and demoting royal officials and the royal consort, bestowing royal decorations, appointing monks to the Sangha Supreme Council and expressing political views, which raises questions over accountability under the King Can Do No Wrong principle.</p>

<p>Student-led pro-democracy protests have been going on for months. One of their tactics is to use royalist symbols, quotations and traditions as satirical weapons to challenge and criticize the government, tradition and society overall.</p>

<p>Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi was removed from her post as Royal Consort of King Vajiralongkorn on 20 October.</p>

<p>&lsquo;Somsak&rsquo;s Work&rsquo;, one of Somsak Jeamteerasakul&rsquo;s blogs, has been banned intermittently in Thailand. The access has returned to normal for some users, but others said the blog remained inaccessible.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The prominent historian in exile has called for reform of the monarchy on 28 July, the birthday of King Vajiralongkorn.</p>

<p>At least one Facebook post made by the Thai historian and monarchy reformist in exile Somsak Jeamteerasakul has been geo-blocked, making it unavailable in Thailand, while users in the UK and France say that they can still see the post.</p>

<p>With the end of Ubolratana Mahidol&rsquo;s candidacy and rumours of an impending coup, a Somsak Jeamteerasakul nostalgia movement has surfaced on the internet.</p>

<div> <div>Would you pay over 200,000 baht for a painting that you cannot hang even in your house? A group of businessmen has won the bid for a portrait of an exiled historian by a satirical cartoon page. </div></div>

<p dir="ltr">The Criminal Court has refused to release a lecturer arrested for sharing a Facebook post written by an academic blacklisted by the junta, despite the defendant promising almost one million baht as surety for bail.</p> <p>On 9 May 2017, the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Rd., Bangkok,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=4221">denied a bail request&nbsp;</a>with a 927,000 baht surety for a university lecturer who requested anonymity accused of violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code, lèse majesté law.</p>