EC member Somchai Srisutthiyakorn met with Pol General Nitiphat Wuttiboonyasit, TCSD superintendent, and Phongsahtorn Wanasukhon, director of the ICT Ministry’s Department of Technology Crime. They discussed the use of online media to spread false and inciting messages in regard to the upcoming referendum.

Somchai said the three parties would work together to track online wrongdoings related to the referendum. The Internet has become a major battlefront on the plebiscite, he said. “The working committee will monitor any online wrongdoings 24/7,” he said. “If any false, rude, or inciting messages about the charter referendum are found, legal action eill be taken immediately.”

Somchai said the public should not be worried about the action. Opinions on the charter were still allowed if they were |not rude, false, or inciting.

The deputy prime minister said at present corruption cases must be processed through existing courts, which often takes a long time because they get placed in a queue and sometimes the statue of limitations expires before cases are heard.

With this special court, Wissanu said, corruption cases would be brought to it directly and expedited as a result. He believed that establishment of the court would act as a deterrent, but there would always be some corruption.

THAILAND and India yesterday signed two agreements on cultural exchange, academic cooperation during Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s official visit to India.

The signing came after a one-on-one and full-team bilateral discussion between Prayut and Narendra Modi, his Indian counterpart, Deputy Government Spokesperson Maj-Gen Werachon Sukondhapaitpak said.

The academic cooperation agreement was made between Chiang Mai University and Nagaland University.

The two leaders also issued a joint statement after their talks, saying they expected to increase maritime, cybersecurity, military and intelligence cooperation. They also pledged to push the India-Myanmar-Thai road project, cooperate in air traffic service, promote people-to-people cooperation and make quick progress in the talks on Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooper-ation.

Prayut arrived in New Delhi on Thursday after an invitation from Modi and is due to return today.

Prayut is accompanied by his wife Naraporn and a high-level team made up of several Cabinet ministers, senior officials and a 46-member business delegation.

Prior to the meeting with Modi, Prayut also met with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to discuss two-way investment, religious tourism and the 70th anniversary of Thai-India diplomatic relations next year.

Prayut and Swaraj also talked on each other’s capacity to be a gateway to their regions. “India’s excellent relations with Thailand are an important and integral component of India’s strategic partnership with Asean,” the External Affairs Ministry statement said. “India’s ‘Act East’ policy is complemented by Thailand’s ‘Look West’ policy in bringing the two countries closer.”

Prayut, his deputy Somkid Jatusripitak and the high-level delegation also met with more than 50 businessmen from Thai private sectors in India to discuss business challenges and opportunities in the world’s third largest economy.

While Indians are impressed by the images and quality of Thai goods, the businessmen said they still face challenges such as the variety of consumer behaviour, regulations, copy infringement issues and struggle with food imports.

“Trade between the two countries is quite low and there is room for more cooperation ,” the Thai Board of Investment deputy secretary general Chokedee Kaewasang said. “Thailand and India are in a unique position to help each other. Thailand will help India in getting access to Asean,” he said. Prayut also attended a business event hosted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Confederation of Indian Industry, and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, during which he encouraged Indian businessmen to invest in the Kingdom.

The premier and Naraporn are due to visit Bodh Gaya today before returning to Bangkok.

THE United Nations’ human rights agency will meet red-shirt leaders on Monday to discuss claims that they are being threatened by the government over their plan to monitor possible fraud in the upcoming referendum on the draft constitution, red-shirt leaders said yesterday.

Red-shirt leaders Jatuporn Prompan and Nattawut Saikua said they yesterday submitted a complaint with Laurent Meillan, representative of the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bangkok.

In the complaint, they said the National Council for Peace and Order was attempting to shut down centres set up by the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship to monitor the referendum.

Jatuporn, who heads the UDD, said that the UN agency’s officials wanted him and other UDD leaders to meet them and discuss the matter on Monday at 11am.

“This is a good sign that the UN is interested in this issue,” he told reporters at the UN office.

The Nation contacted the OHCHR but was unable to get confirmation of the red shirts’ comments.

NCPO spokesman Piyapong Klinphan said the junta was monitoring the UDD centres closely. He said the group had signed an agreement with authorities not to stage political activities so this move could breach the contract.

He warned people not to join the group, adding that they could be abandoned if faced with legal prosecution.

Jatuporn said that authorities had summoned the heads of the fraud-monitoring centres in the provinces. Campaign banners had been seized and the centres’ personnel were threatened with prosecution.

The situation was particularly bad in Prachin Buri province where the centre’s leaders had been detained in an undisclosed location and the centre locked up by the authorities, the group claimed.

Jatuporn alleged the action was |the result of Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, a key NCPO member, saying the centres were |illegal despite junta chief Prayut |Chan-o-cha saying otherwise.

The group called on the authorities to leave provincial red-shirt leaders alone. If the centres were illegal, the leaders should be arrested instead, Jatuporn said.

The group said it would continue with the action, as the junta could seize its objects but it could not stop the spirit of its members

Another NCPO spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvaree said it was still unclear if the centres were legal and officers were overseeing their activities. If they were deemed political, they would be stopped, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy PM Wissanu Krea-ngam said Pheu Thai politicians expressing a stance against the charter may be taking a political stand, feasibly punishable by party dissolution under Article 44 of the interim charter.

But the law was not to be used arbitrarily, he said, adding that there had been many times the regime considered using Article 44 but did not. There were benchmarks and reasons to consider before adopting such a strong measure, Wissanu explained.

He said normal laws were more sustainable than Article 44, which would eventually be scratched.

The Pheu Thai politicians posted on their Facebook pages that they were going to reject the junta-sponsored constitution in the referendum.

Election Commission member Somchai Srisuthiyakorn said that if it was proved that this action were organised by the party, the worst punishment the party could receive would be dissolution.

But Wissanu stressed the regime had no intention to do that at the moment.

He declined to comment on what the politicians would have to say before facing severe punishment. The judgement would lie in the hands of relevant agents, he said.

The deputy PM said EC member Somchai’s dissolution comment was meant to serve as a deterrent to any further disruption. And as he was an agent enforcing the referendum law, he might regard the warning as necessary, Wissanu added.

EC member Prawich Rattanapian said that expressing one’s opinion was not against the referendum law unless the opinion was a distortion of the truth or false information.

The bill stipulates that the Corruption Court will adopt an inquisitorial procedure in which judges and court staff are actively involved in investigating cases and suspects.

The inquisitorial role is unlike the adversarial system used in Criminal Court where the role of the court and judges is to maintain a fair balance between the prosecution and defence.

Under the bill, the court will be able to hear cases against officials who abuse power or face charges of malfeasance, money laundering, bid rigging, bribery or demanding kickbacks.

Other offences include submitting false asset declarations, concealing wealth and amassing disproportionate assets.

The bill also states that the time that suspects evade trial will not be counted towards the statute of limitations. After the court issues a verdict, the period of time needed to apprehend suspects also will not be included in the statute of limitations.

The Central Corruption Court will have jurisdiction in Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani.

Regional Corruption Courts will also be established in nine regions across the country.

The Criminal Court’s Corruption Cases Division, which was established last August, will be upgraded to become the Corruption Court.

The bill also stipulates that the Court of Appeals will set up a division in charge of appeals in corruption cases and all appeals will go through a single central court.

The bill requires that suspects submit appeals on their own.

Rulings by the Court of Appeals’ Corruption Cases Division will be regarded as final unless the case is brought to the Supreme Court.

Judges who try corruption cases must have at least 10 years’ experience and the courts will be required to conclude cases within two years.

Court of Justice spokesman Suebpong Sripongkul said the bill also stipulated that during trial, if suspects are released on bail and attempt to flee, they will face up to an additional six months’ imprisonment or a Bt10,000 fine, which will be enforced even if the original charges are dropped.

Prosecutors must report to the court on a monthly basis on progress to bring suspects to stand trial.

The court received explanations defending the problematic clause from both the National Legislative Assembly and Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday, as had been requested. It will convene to deliberate on the agencies’ responses next week and hear further testimony if the explanations are insufficient, according to the source.

The second paragraph of Article 61 prohibits the spread of “false”, “rude”, “inciting” or “intimidating” messages concerning the referendum and the constitution draft, with punishment of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of Bt200,000.

A petition has been lodged against it alleging that the clause violates the 2014 interim charter, which protects freedom of expression.

Authorities have insisted that the referendum date of August 7 will remain unchanged even if a clause in the referendum law is at risk of nullification. They added that even if one clause of Article 61 is invalidated, the rest of the law will still be in effect.

Pheu Thai Party politicians on Wednesday posted on their Facebook pages their opposition to the constitution draft, raising concerns whether they could be prosecuted according to the referendum law.

Udom Rathamarit, a spokesman of the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC), said drafters were considering whether to file a complaint against some of the politicians whose comments may have distorted the draft charter’s content.

EC member Somchai Srisuthiyakorn said the CDC could lodge a petition with his agency if they identified any false statements about the constitution draft. He reiterated that he personally did not see politicians’ actions as violations of the referendum law, although such actions might violate the junta’s order banning political parties’ activities.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam declined to comment on the matter but said everybody must be responsible for their own actions.

He added that he did not think Pheu Thai politicians’ stance against the constitution draft would influence the public.

“Thailand is under no one’s influence,” he said.

Wissanu cited Wittaya Kaewparadai, a member of the junta-appointed National Reform Steering Assembly and a former leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, as saying that he would vote yes in the referendum.

Wissanu said systematically showing a stance regarding the charter at the same time as Pheu Thai politicians do so was different than trying to influence how people vote.

Asked if the government could reveal what it would do if the charter fails to pass, he replied that the National Council for Peace and Order, not the government, should comment, adding that no one had told him about the issue yet.

The panel proposed that members of the public who support political parties contribute Bt200 each annually, while the state will provide half the total amount in subsidy.

For instance, if a party has a million members, it will get Bt300 million in total subsidy – Bt200 million from the public and Bt100 million from the state.

“This will make the public feel as if they own the party they are members of and the party will be encouraged to come up with good policies to attract more members. It is an unprecedented proposal that is believed to free political parties from being dominated and influenced by capitalists,” he said.

Sompong also proposed that taxpayers be given a tax deduction of twice the amount they have donated to political parties, but no more than Bt15,000.

He added that the NRSA will meet today to decide whether it will approve the proposal.

Her plea comes at a time when freedom of speech is seen as plunging because of more restrictions imposed by authoritarian governments in several countries as well as the emerging challenges the media are encountering across the world, including the rise of new-media technology.

At the same forum, “Media Freedom Values”, held by the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, the global media community was also called upon to stand up for freedom of expression and press freedom.

This annual event is also seen as a way to unite media from across the world via networking. More than 2,000 participants from more than 100 countries were present and climate change was one of the key issues discussed.

Figueres said the international climate-change conference in Paris last year was not simply a news event that the media should report, but also a historic event that people everywhere should learn about.

Not only did almost all of the world’s countries come together to make an unanimous decision, this agreement will bind those countries together under the same rules. Furthermore, they have recognised it as the first step on a path forward that is now much clearer.

But as the work is moving forward, there are also negative trends, including the continued increase of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.

This, she said, has caused other problems including the mass migration to Europe, citing the strong relationship between severe drought in some parts of Syria that caused people to lose their land and flee their homeland.

Figueres called on the media to keep up with such issues of importance to people’s lives.

“If there is one common or ultimate interest, it’s peace, and we are having an opportunity now to plant the ground of peace, rather than walking into more and more conflict,” she said.

About four years ago, a Thai flight attendant working for Cathay Pacific posted a message onFacebook to say that she felt uncomfortable at having to serve a daughter of former prime ministerThaksin Shinawatra. She went further, adding she had wanted to scald Thaksin’s daughter with the coffee. She also posted the passenger’s flight information.

The airline quickly distanced itself by announcing the flight attendant was no longer an employee and issuing a statement saying it “regrets this unfortunate incident and wishes to assure all our customers that their privacy and a strict adherence to all privacy regulations is extremely important to us.”

However, it seems no lessons were learned.

Recently, a co-pilot of Nok Air used the Line chat application to post a photo of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra at Phrae’s airport, captioned with the message “victim on board”. Another member of the chat group, who reportedly works for Thai Air Asia, joked “Try CFIT”, an aviation term that stands for “controlled flight into terrain” – a deliberate crash.

The two airlines were quick to apologise, prompted no doubt by the political sensitivity of the matter. However, more significant than hurt feelings here are the ramifications for standards of professionalism and air safety.

Nok Air chief executive Patee Sarasin issued a written apology and personally called Yingluck to say sorry. Thai Air Asia CEO Tassapon Bijleveld said the trainee pilot involved in the controversy had been ordered to retake an attitude test.

Of course, the pilots were plainly expressing personal political antipathy with their comments – no one is suggesting they was any intent to crash a plane.

But consider an equivalent situation in which an airline passenger jokes with crew members about a bomb on board. Such cases usually end up with police getting involved and a ban or even legal action applied against the wrongdoer.

Yet it appears those same standards are not being applied to pilots in an industry where professionalism and safety is of paramount importance.

All industries – not just aviation – have a duty to dictate and maintain basic standards of service for all their users, whatever their politics, creed or beliefs.

People are certainly entitled to their personal political leanings, but that preference must not be allowed to interfere in their work and the collective performance of the business they work for.

That fundamental rule of professionalism applies whether they are a flight attendant, a pilot, a journalist, a doctor, a police or military officer, a bureaucrat or a court judge. If we allow the political conflict to infect our everyday working lives, Thai society will deteriorate even further.