Lack of sympathy for calls for justice, democracy still evident

One year on, tens of thousands of red shirts converged at Ratchaprasong Intersection yesterday to commemorate the end of the bloody military confrontation with the reds. Many are still grappling with how the government managed to get away with the crackdowns that began on April 10 and ended on May 19, leaving a combined death toll of 92 from both sides - but mostly red shirts - and more than a thousand injuries.

For the first time in several years, Amnesty International acknowledged yesterday that there was at least one prisoner of conscience in Thailand. This was declared in the agency's recently released 2011 report on human rights, which details how the freedom of expression is being curbed through the use of the emergency decree, the lese majeste law and the Computer Crime Act.

The recent spate of lese majeste charges against opponents of the government - including academics, journalists and red-shirt leaders - is creating a climate of fear that has further politicised the monarchy, critics say.

Accused by some of being mentally unsound, academic Somsak Jiamteerasakul continues his calls for reforms

Thammasat University historian Somsak Jiamteerasakul is probably the most under-reported public intellectual in Thailand. That's not because he doesn't have anything to say; quite the contrary in fact. A vocal critic of the Thai monarchy and the country's lese-majeste law, Somsak has long been treated by most mainstream mass media as persona non grata.