FCCT STATEMENT ON THE DETENTION OF DR PAUL CHAMBERS
The professional membership of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand is deeply concerned about the detention and denial of bail of Dr Paul Chambers pending trial for alleged violations of the Law of Lèse-majesté and the Computer Crimes Act. It urges the authorities concerned to ensure he receives just treatment as promptly as possible.
Chambers, a lecturer and special adviser on international affairs at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok, is a well-respected academic who has spent over 30 years in Thailand carving his proud niche in academia. He is married to a Thai, speaks Thai and has devoted his career to Thailand.
This soft-spoken, empathetic and enthusiastic American is today languishing in a prison cell in Phitsanulok for reasons that are far from clear to many observers. He is manifestly a very low-flight risk and is not guilty of any previous crimes.
According to his lawyers and those close to him, his alleged offenses relate to publicity for an ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute webinar in Singapore that he participated in late last year. As will doubtless emerge in court, that publicity was not inflammatory and certainly not written by Chambers.
There will now inevitably follow weeks, maybe months, of scrutiny of a capricious law that has caused great unhappiness and alienated many in Thailand from the very institution it is intended to protect.
The complaints against Chambers evidently emanate from the Third Army Region based in Phitsanulok, but there needs to be transparency about who is truly behind this case, their motives and whether their actions are genuinely in the national interest or part of another agenda.
What has happened to Chambers – arrest for alleged lèse-majesté without bail – has befallen others in recent years, and has caused the kingdom serious reputational damage that it does not need in exceptionally difficult times.
The U.S. Department of State said in a statement that it was “alarmed”:
“This case reinforces our longstanding concerns about the use of lèse majesté laws in Thailand. We continue to urge Thai authorities to respect freedom of expression and to ensure that laws are not used to stifle permitted expression. As a treaty ally of Thailand we will closely monitor this issue and advocate for the fair treatment of Paul Chambers,” it said.
In January, a panel of experts from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote: "The Thai lese-majeste law is both harsh and vague, giving wide discretion to the authorities and the courts to define the offence broadly and has led to the detention, prosecution and punishment of over 270 persons since 2020, many of whom have been given long consecutive sentences by the courts."
9 April 2025
