In Thailand, a 27-year old man is facing more than 30 years in prison after allegedly mocking
the king’s dog over Facebook.
The country, which last year saw a military coup-d’état overthrow democratic rule,
has doled out decades of jail time for the crime of “insulting the monarchy”.
Others have been arrested for blogging and even just sharing negative information.
But Thailand is far from the only country to still prosecute anti-government speech.
So, where is it illegal to insult the government?
Well, the concept of “illegal offense” against a sovereign ruler is known as “lèse-majesté”,
which originally comes from Latin, meaning “to injure greatness”.
At a time when kings were considered divinely appointed, this was along the same lines as
blasphemy.
However, as monarchies have largely become irrelevant and vestigial, criminalizing insults
has become much less frequent around the world.
Still, in some countries it is worse than ever.
Besides Thailand, Malaysia has surprisingly strict punishments for those who insult the
king, with one woman in 2013 being arrested under a 1948 sedition law for posting insults
on Facebook.
This law prohibits speech that could be considered to undermine the government, and has been
used to prosecute monarchy insults in the past.
Many Middle Eastern countries and their neighbors have some form of government-directed censorship,
including Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Turkey, among others.
In fact, Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code makes it illegal to insult the country
of Turkey or any government institutions.
Until 2008, it was illegal to insult “Turkishness” in general.
In Morocco, despite adopting a constitution in 2011 protecting free expression, a student
was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
He said negative things about the king in a discussion that was posted to YouTube.
Other African countries have similar laws, including Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Zambia.
In fact, in 2007 a copper miner in Zambia was arrested for joking about the country’s
President with his co-workers.
Another man, a journalist, went to trial for writing a negative article about the President.
But perhaps the most surprising part of the world to still prosecute people for their
anti-monarchy speech is Europe.
Italy directly prohibits insulting the President, as well as religion.
And although one journalist won his appeal on a potential five-year prison sentence for
calling the President “unworthy”, the law is still on the books and carries a fine
of up to more than $20,000.
Poland criminalizes not only insults against the President, but against foreign heads of
state as well.
In 2005, 28 Polish protesters were reportedly arrested for organizing against Russian President
Vladimir Putin, and the following year, a 45-year-old man was reportedly arrested for
farting when told to show the President respect.
Other European countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and France ALL
have active laws preventing criticism of the government.
Really, even though monarchies and governments have long lost their infallibility, national
pride is taken very seriously in many countries.
Being legally forced to treat a head of state with dignity and respect is a remnant of a
somewhat religious and outdated authoritarian system of rule.
But while we don’t have God-kings anymore, there are still many countries looking for
reasons to crack down on dissent.
Even in this day and age, monarchies still exist.
Watch our video to find out which countries still have kings and queens.
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