NCPO allows academic freedom seminar to proceed
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A discussion on ‘Academic Freedom Under the Military’ was allowed to be held after National Council for Peace and Order on Wednesday visited Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand hours before the discussion panel took place in the evening.
FCCT was the event’s host with three speakers from university lecturer. They were Pongkwan sawasdipak, Ekachai Chainuvati, and Titipol Phakdeewanich from Thammasat, Siam, and Ubon Ratchathani University respectively.
Hours before the program, FCCT was visited by some military and police officers. They discussed with the club’s president Jonathan Head, who is also a BBC correspondent, about the panel, worried it would cause disorder.
Despite that, Head tweeted that the club reassured the discussion panel would be orderly. So, the officers allowed the program to proceed.
After the coup in 2014, the junta has several times banned events hosted by FCCT. Most of them were discussions involving freedom, human rights, and democracy.
