Thai webmaster guilty, jail suspended under royal slur law

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of Prachatai website, smiles as she talks with reporters at the criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand Wednesday, May 30, 2012. A Thai court sentenced Chiranuch to an eight-month suspended sentence for failing to act quickly enough to remove Internet posts deemed insulting to Thailand's royalty. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

BANGKOK – A Thai court on Wednesday convicted an online editor for hosting posts critical of the revered monarchy on her website, but suspended her jail sentence amid demands to reform the lese majeste law.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn was found guilty of failing to speedily delete comments by other people deemed insulting to the royal family from her popular news website, Prachatai. The Bangkok court fined her 20,000 baht ($630).

But Judge Kampol Rungrat, while sentencing Chiranuch to eight months in jail, suspended the sentence for a year, saying that she had cooperated with the court and had “never violated the (lese majeste) law herself”.

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Tags: infotech , Internet , royal slur law , Thailand