Thai King: Douchebag

Australian author Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in a Thai prison for insulting the country’s king, Bhumibol Adulydej. It’s a crime to insult the royal family in any way in Thailand, and officials there describe Nicolaides’ self-published novel Verisimilitude as an attack on the king and crown prince. As much as King Bhumibol Adulydej is indeed a douchebag for being too much of a pussy to handle criticism, CNN also deserves a little of that genital washing attention for refusing to reprint the offending passages from the book, citing their fear that doing so would open their employees to prosecution in Thailand. The very basis of journalism is a respect and unwavering commitment to preserving free speech. Whether that means reprinting cartoons of Muhammad or passages from some vanity press novel, CNN has an obligation to do just that. Just as the governments of every free country have an obligation to see to it Nicolaides is released. This is a distinct possibility, as Adulydej has pardoned foreigners arrested for the same reasons before. But the fact remains that any country with such an oppressive and petty law should suffer the pressure of world governments. I don’t know what Nicolaides wrote about the king, but for the sake of argument, let’s just assume he called Adulydej a pompous, limp-dicked blowhard who’s unfit to rule a country. If you live in Thailand, go ahead and print that out and pass it around. More details here.