Long-time Thailand-based American scholar Paul Chambers on Friday, April 4, 2025, became the latest target of the archaic and controversial royal defamation law, also known as lese majeste law, after he revealed that police came to see him in Phitsanulok province, in northern Thailand, where he teaches at Naresuan University, a state university. It was agreed that he will hear lese majeste charges made against him this coming Tuesday at the provincial police station.
Chambers is an expert in Thai studies, speaks Thai, and his particular interests and writings include the role of the monarchy, the military, human rights, and the lese majeste law.
Here’s basically an expert on this draconian royal defamation law, and has been treading carefully over the decades when discussing the matter and the monarchy institution. So basically it’s fair to say he knows what he was doing, just like snake charmers know how dangerous cobras can be.
I reached out to Chambers at around noon on Friday and he told me he was “in shock”, adding he didn’t know yet what may have led to Third Army Region filing a lese majeste police complaint against him, which led to the issuing of an arrest warrant, and which could lead to him spending as long as 15 years in Thai prison if found guilty.
I asked Chambers what he thought it was all about, then requested him to type it down and send the answer to me, so there won’t be anything lost. It will be used for the news article, I added.
In his written replies, Chambers speculates that it may be due to an academic webinar in late 2024. “I was asked if I thought the king was more powerful than the Prime Minister. That was a long time ago…”
I did not include the answer that he typed to me, and originally published online in Khaosod English, because less than two hours later, I received a call from Chambers, telling me that his human right attorney has asked him to ask me if I could remove the answer.
I thought, and I still think, this is an over-reaction on part of Chambers’ lawyer. That these human rights lawyers are unnecessarily instilling fears, paranoia even, in the hearts and minds of their clients, and thus widen the already more than alarming sphere and culture of self censorship when it comes to the Thai monarch institution. This is on top of what the public experienced at the court, where the criminal courts would every now and then orders journalists and non-essential attendees to court proceedings on lese majeste trials to leave the courtroom before proceeding, citing the “sensitivities” of the matter to be discussed, thus rendering the justice system and the controversial lese majeste law cryptic, if not incomprehensible to the public.
Now we have some human rights lawyers, intentionally or not, trying to censor a public discussion about the problems of the laws, and its application, by citing legal concerns.
I told the lawyer when she rang me on Friday afternoon that I have already conceded to Chambers’ request to remove his answer, but I will continue to keep the speculated question written by Chambers in the news article. Chambers’ human attorney kept trying to convince me that even the question which was written by Chambers to me for the news article should also be redacted because it could be incriminating.
I then told her I hold a very different view regarding the matter and this is not just a matter of press freedom for press freedom’s sake, but a necessary and crucial issue on what might have led to the charge. And it Chambers’ was right, then it’s clear that the application of law is becoming increasingly absurd and the public has the right to be informed.
In a democratic society, or a sane society, asking whether the king or the prime minister is more powerful, is just part of a normal political discussion. To make even the mentioning of such questions a taboo in Thailand, is to further expand the already absurd level of the climate of fears and culture of self-censorship in Thailand.
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