After ASTV-Manager Weekly last week was reprimanded by the junta, the publisher of Matichon Weekly on Friday decided to halt distribution of its latest issue due to fear of a lèse majesté prosecution.

 

ASTV-Manager Online on Friday reported that it has been confirmed by the distributer of the weekly news magazine that Matichon has asked the distributer to stop distributing issue 1774 of the magazine for 15-21 August, but did not call in the ones which had been sold, adding that Matichon told the distributor that it “doesn’t want the publishing house to be shut down.”

 

While ASTV-Manager speculates that the content which links coup maker Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha with the Privy Council President Gen Prem Tinsulanonda was the reason, Prachatai suspects that a typo in a poem in the “Kawee Krawad” column by Rarin Muk on page 90 was the reason for the fear of lèse majesté. 

 

The poem talks about truth and lies. Due to the typo, the word “Nai Luang” (ในหลวง), which is an informal expression used by Thais when referring to the King, appears instead of “luang” (ลวง), which means ‘lie’.