Thailand protests: court orders shutdown of news site linked to former PM Thaksin Shinawatra

Name: Thailand suspends TV station over protest coverage
Uploaded: 2020-10-20T12:54:36.000Z
Duration: 49 s
Description: Thailand suspends TV station over protest coverage

Thousands of protesters have massed in the capital for daily demonstrations, flouting a ban imposed late last week prohibiting gatherings of more than four people

They are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who was first brought to power in a military coup and reform of the kingdom’s powerful monarchy

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Pro-democracy protesters flash the three-finger salute outside Siam BTS station in Bangkok. Photo: EPA

Agence France-Presse

Published: 8:54pm, 20 Oct 2020Updated: 9:33pm, 25 Nov 2020

A Thai news outlet connected to exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra was ordered to close Tuesday over its coverage of anti-government protests that have rocked the capital for nearly a week.

Voice TV, a website partly owned by Thaksin’s family, was one of four media organisations ordered to shut because of their reporting on the ongoing protest movement.

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Thailand suspends TV station over protest coverage

Thousands of protesters have massed daily in the capital since last week, flouting an emergency edict prohibiting gatherings of more than four people.

But they appeared to take a break Tuesday, with only several hundred gathered at the usual protest sites.

The largely leaderless youth movement is calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha – a former army chief and mastermind of a 2014 coup – as well as a rewriting of the military-drafted constitution they say rigged last year’s election in his favour.

They are also calling for the reform of the kingdom’s powerful and ultra-wealthy monarchy – a long-taboo subject.