Thailand’s embattled prime minister say there were no plans to extend a state of emergency outside the capital, even as student-led protests calling for him to leave office spread around the country.
Pro-democracy protesters wave the Thailand national flag as others shine their mobile phone lights during an anti-government protest in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020. Thai police on Sunday declined to say whether they were taking a softer approach toward student anti-government demonstrations, after several mass rallies attracting thousands of protesters ended peacefully in Bangkok on Saturday.
None of that has been able to keep the mostly young protesters from gathering en masse across Bangkok the past five days to push their demands, which also include constitutional changes and reform of the monarchy. On Sunday, rallies spread to at least a dozen provinces outside Bangkok.“I want to ask them for a few things: Don’t destroy the government and private properties and don’t touch the monarchy,” Prayuth said of the demonstrators.
Under existing laws, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society are empowered to ban broadcasts and block internet content. Police themselves can also do so under the emergency decree, which went into effect Oct. 15, a day after protesters heckled a royal motorcade in once unthinkable scene in a country where the monarchy is protected by strict laws and treated with reverence.
All the outlets have been broadcasting live coverage of the protests. Voice TV and Prachatai are openly sympathetic to the protest movement, and Free Youth is a student protest organization. As of Monday, none had been blocked.In addition the emergency decree making protests illegal, authorities have also tried in vain to keep people from gathering by selectively shutting down stations on Bangkok’s mass transit lines.
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