Bhumibol Adulyadej, conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great, was the ninth king of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama IX. Reigning from 1946 until his death in 2016, he is the third-longest verified reigning sovereign monarch in world history after King Louis XIV and Queen Elizabeth II, reigning for 70 years and 126 days. His reign of over 70 years is the longest reign of any Thai monarch, and the longest native rule of any Asian sovereign.
Ubol Ratana is a member of the Thai royal family. She is the eldest child of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit and elder sister of King Vajiralongkorn.
Lakorn is a popular genre of fiction in Thai television. They are known in Thai as ละครโทรทัศน์ or ละคร. They are shown generally at prime-time on Thai television channels, starting usually on, before or approximately at 20:25-20:30 hrs local time. An episode of a prime-time drama is between 45 minutes to two hours long including commercials. Each series is a finished story, unlike Western "cliffhanger" dramas, but rather like Hispanic telenovelas.
S. P. Somtow is a Thai-American musical composer. He is also a science fiction, fantasy, and horror author writing in English. Somtow has both Thai and American citizenship.
Thailand has a well-developed mass media sector, especially by Southeast Asian standards. The Thai government and the military have long exercised considerable control, especially over radio and TV stations. During the governments of Thaksin Shinawatra and the subsequent military-run administration after the 2006 coup and military coup of 2014, the media in Thailand—both domestic and foreign—have suffered from increasing restrictions and censorship, sometimes subtle, sometimes overt.
The King Never Smiles is an unauthorized biography of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej by Paul M. Handley, a freelance journalist who lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Thailand. It is published by Yale University Press and was released in 2006. The book was banned in Thailand before publication, and the Thai authorities have blocked local access to websites advertising the book.
Censorship in Thailand involves the strict control of political news under successive governments, including by harassment and manipulation.
Syndromes and a Century is a 2006 Thai drama film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film was among the works commissioned for Peter Sellars' New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It premiered on August 30, 2006 at the 63rd Venice Film Festival.
The 2006 Thai coup d'état took place on 19 September 2006, when the Royal Thai Army staged a coup d'état against the elected caretaker government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The coup d'état, which was Thailand's first non-constitutional change of government in fifteen years since the 1991 Thai coup d'état, followed a year-long political crisis involving Thaksin, his allies, and political opponents and occurred less than a month before nationwide House elections were scheduled to be held. It has been widely reported in Thailand and elsewhere that General Prem Tinsulanonda, key person in military-monarchy nexus, Chairman of the Privy Council, was the mastermind of the coup. The military cancelled the scheduled 15 October elections, abrogated the 1997 constitution, dissolved parliament and constitutional court, banned protests and all political activities, suppressed and censored the media, declared martial law nationwide, and arrested cabinet members.
Surayud Chulanont is a Thai politician. He was the Prime Minister of Thailand and head of Thailand's interim government between 2006 and 2008. He is a former supreme commander of the Royal Thai Army and is currently Privy Councilor to King Vajiralongkorn.
Ploy is a 2007 Thai film written and directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. The film premiered during the Directors' Fortnight at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
Internet police is a generic term for police and government agencies, departments and other organizations in charge of policing the Internet in a number of countries. The major purposes of Internet police, depending on the state, are fighting cybercrime, as well as censorship and propaganda.
Most Internet censorship in Thailand prior to the September 2006 military coup d'état was focused on blocking pornographic websites. The following years have seen a constant stream of sometimes violent protests, regional unrest, emergency decrees, a new cybercrimes law, and an updated Internal Security Act. Year by year Internet censorship has grown, with its focus shifting to lèse majesté, national security, and political issues. By 2010, estimates put the number of websites blocked at over 110,000. In December 2011, a dedicated government operation, the Cyber Security Operation Center, was opened. Between its opening and March 2014, the Center told ISPs to block 22,599 URLs.
On 26 September 2006 the Deutsche Oper Berlin announced the cancellation of four performances of Mozart's opera Idomeneo, re di Creta, planned for November 2006, citing concerns that the production's depictions of the severed head of the Islamic prophet Muhammad raised an "incalculable security risk". "To avoid endangering its audience and employees, the management has decided against repeating Idomeneo in November 2006", the opera house said in a press release.
Ermonela Jaho is an Albanian operatic soprano. She was described in The Economist as "the world’s most acclaimed soprano". The Financial Times said "Ermonela Jaho throws heart and soul into her singing... Don't even try to resist".
The bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Bhutan and the Kingdom of Thailand were established in 1989. Thailand is one of the only 54 nations with formal diplomatic relations with Bhutan.
Shakespeare Must Die is a 2012 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. It was directed by Ing Kanjanavanit and produced by Manit Sriwanichpoom. The Yingluck Shinawatra government banned the film as a national security threat due to the film's visual references to the paramilitary's violent crackdown on student protesters in the Thammasat University massacre of 6 October 1976.
Spaces is a Russian social network service that targets mobile phone users.
Censorship in Nepal consists of suppression on the expression of political opinion, religious aspect, and obscenity. The Constitution of Nepal guarantees the fundamental rights of citizens, including the freedom of expression. The right to freedom of expression includes the freedom of opinion and thought no matter what a source is. As the Constitution has been developed to push forward democracy, inconsistencies of the Constitution reform create different meanings of prohibiting censorship. The 2004, 2009, and 2015 Constitution are infamous with the restrictions of the rights which are obscure and open for misinterpretation compared to the Constitution announced in 1990.
