Thailand’s Court of Appeal increased a man’s sentence to a record 50 years in prison for insulting Thailand’s monarchy. It is believed to be the harshest penalty ever imposed under the country’s strict lese majeste law.

Mongkol Tillakote, an online clothing seller and political activist from the northern province of Chiang Rai, was initially sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2023 for social media posts damaging to the king. Later, the Chiang Rai Court of Appeal found him guilty because of a dozen more counts of contempt of the royal family and extended his prison sentence by 22 years. Thailand has some of the strictest lese majeste laws in the world, and criticizing the king, queen or other royal family members can result in a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison per charge.

Considering this situation, I think that we have freedom of speech in Japan, and the circumstances in Thailand can be a dictatorship. In Japan, a lot of people respect the Japanese royal family, but some have bad images of them because Showa Tennou caused wars. I sometimes see memes of them and they never get arrested because of fun memes. Whether feeling good or bad depends on the person, however, in Thailand, even a little saying about them leads to imprisonment, which violates an individual’s free speech.