Thailand bans new Routledge textbook on contemporary politics, citing national security threats
The Thai police have ordered a ban on the second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand, claiming that it contains chapters that could affect national security or cause unrest.
Edited by exiled academic Pavin Chachavalpongpun, the book contains chapters on the Thai military, the monarchy, and the use of the royal defamation law, as well as chapters on popular movements and other social and political issues. Pavin posted on Facebook on Thursday (5 November) that the book was banned for its content about the monarchy.
In a previous post, he wrote that book banning doesn’t work in the age of the internet, since people can buy e-books instead of hard copies. He also wrote that the ban would help promote the book.
Under the 2007 Printing Recordation Act, importing the book for distribution carries a prison sentence of up to three years, or a fine of up to 60,000 baht, or both. The police may also seize and destroy the book.
This is the second time one of Pavin’s publications has been banned in Thailand. In July 2023, the Thai authorities ordered a ban on his book “Rama X: The Thai Monarchy under King Vajiralongkorn” even before it was released.
iLaw noted that the police have banned six books since the Printing Recordation Act came into effect, all of which concerns the monarchy. Other than the two books by Pavin, the list includes:
- Thailand’s Crisis and the Fight for Democracy by Giles Ungpakorn
- A Kingdom in Crisis by Andrew McGregor Marshall
- The November 2015 issue of the French edition of Marie Claire magazine
- The article “Thailand: Colossally Popular,” published in The New Age of the Kings: Modern Monarchies in Malaysia and the World
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KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.