Thailand and novelists and jail sentences
January 19th, 2009 | by Paolo |Interesting bit from the Land of Smiles. The Thais revere their royalty, and back it up with serious punishments. It highlights an interesting conflict between local values and identity vs. liberal democratic values such as free speech.
The realistic perspective is to observe that when you enter a country, you adhere to its values. Simple as that. But I also think that a country benefits from honest discussion–and particularly, honest political discussion–and have to think that aggressive laws like this ultimately hurt a society more than help it.
A little more on the topic, from The Economist.
