Thai seller of rubber duck calendar discovered guilty of royal defamation

A Thai vendor of a rubber ducky calendar has been discovered responsible of royal defamation. The 26 yr old man, “Tonmai,” was arrested on December 31, 2020, and charged with royal defamation. Now, he’ll serve two years in jail after being found responsible.
The Taling Chan Criminal Court dominated that the depiction of the rubber duck was a mockery of Thailand’s Head of State. According to Prachatai English, the rubber ducks first arrived at pro-democracy demonstrations back in 2020.
The yellow duck became a symbol of resistance after protesters used the large inflatables to block water cannon blasts. Protesters nicknamed the yellow geese “the navy.” The ducks were given pseudo-royal titles by protesters.
Police conducted a sting operation, posing as a potential buyer of the calendar on Facebook and asking for it to be delivered by a Grab driver. Officers then tracked the situation until they found Tonmai’s residence and requested a search warrant.
They found the calendar and arrested him as a end result of the calendar mocks the Head of State. During the witness examination, Tonmai mentioned the calendar did not mention the Head of State or other royal members of the family. Running out says he didn’t produce the calendars, however solely delivered them.
A Thammasat University lecturer stood up for Tonmai by saying that the parody does not represent an offence underneath the royal defamation legislation, for the explanation that legislation specifically refers to risk and defamation.
An activist also agreed with Tonmai’s defence by saying that the language used within the calendar has additionally been utilized in fiction when acceptable for a character’s standing. During the cross-examination of a Metropolitan Police officer, he noted that he also thinks that the duck does not symbolize the Head of State.
But, one other lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science, testified as an expert witness for the prosecution. He says he sees the duck as representing the Head of State with the calendar which means to point out that the Head of State uses taxpayer cash for his sexual achieve, is above executive, judicial, and legislative powers and controls the military.
He commented on March on the calendar, during which he says he saw the duck with a condom on prime of its head. He says he took it to mean that the Head of State is obsessive about sex or that he is selling the use of safety.
However, under cross-examination, the lecturer mentioned that he agreed the duck represented many roles and that the picture of a duck flying with a aircraft titled, “Super VIP” couldn’t be taken as a reference to the Head of State..