After a Prachatai journalist was released on bail yesterday, soldiers and police officers in plainclothes came to the Prachatai office with a search warrant, asking the Director about Prachatai’s involvement with the anti-junta activist group. The authorities also searched journalists’ personal lockers.

On Tuesday, 12 July 2016, five plainclothes police officers from Sutthisan Police Station and a number of soldiers came to Prachatai with a search warrant. They searched the Prachatai office and the personal desk of Taweesak Kerdpoka, the Prachatai journalist who was detained for reporting on a case involving referendum campaigners two days ago, as well as his friends’ desks.

The authorities also searched the personal lockers of Prachatai staff but confiscated nothing. They also asked the Prachatai Editor about their involvement with the anti-draft charter documents of the New Democracy Movement (NDM). The Editor said that the authorities suspected that Prachatai was the publisher of the documents. The Editor replied that Prachatai is an online newspaper which has nothing to do with printed material.
 

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, Prachatai Director, presents Prachatai t-shirts to the authorities and ask if they want to buy one

Police officers at Prachatai office

A plainclothes police man searches Taweesak's desk