THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Police pressure FCCT over #MBK39election meeting

Police pressure FCCT over #MBK39election meeting

Police have summoned representatives of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) after an activist was accused of planning an allegedly illegal assembly at the club that demanded the election be held by November.

The summons by police from Lumpini Station was revealed on Monday on the Facebook page of Nutta Mahattana, one of the 39 activists accused of planning the assembly.
Nutta is scheduled to hold a press conference under the hashtag #MBK39 on Tuesday at the FCCT. She is expected to update the case of the 39 activists, who are known as “the MBK39” and charged with sedition and of violating the junta’s ban on political assembly relating to a gathering on January 27 that demanded an election be held in 2018. 
About 100 people gathered to join or observe the gathering held on the Skywalk in front of the MBK shopping mall.
The attempt by police to pressure the venue to bar an attempt to communicate to media should be regarded as a threat to press freedom, Nutta wrote on her Facebook on Monday.
“If police think the conference is a national security threat, why don’t the police contact me directly – because I’m the coordinator,” she wrote. 
It is believed that the summons was in response to Nutta’s post on Facebook inviting people to attend the press conference. 
The 39 activists last week asked for a postponement of their appearance to acknowledge the charges at Pathum Wan Police Station on Thursday.

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