All posts by zenjournalist

Sirikit and Bhumibol

Secret British cable on the Thai royal family, 1963

A declassified secret cable in the UK national archives, reporting on a meeting between Sir Desmond Dreyer, admiral of the British navy’s Far East Fleet, with King Bhumibol Adulyadej and […]

Bhumibol and Ananda

Thailand’s saddest secret

  On the morning of June 9, 1946, the 20-year-old Ananda Mahidol, King Rama VIII of Siam, was shot through the head and killed in his bedroom in the Barompiman […]

Thai royals

Yummy food, problem royals: Stratfor on Thailand

In December 2011, members of the Anonymous hacktivist group penetrated the computer systems of Texas-based “global intelligence company” Stratfor and accessed more than five million e-mails. Over the past year, these […]

The royals

WITH MAJOR UPDATE —The foreign media are failing Thailand: finding common ground

It’s no secret that I have long been critical of most foreign media coverage of Thailand. On February 1, I wrote an article setting out my views, in considerable anger […]

Still no comment

The foreign media are failing Thailand: a professor responds

There has been another interesting response to my article The Foreign Media Are Failing Thailand — Andrew Walker, an associate professor at the Australian National University, has written a lengthy blog post entitled […]

Stephff

The foreign media are failing Thailand: sexism and stupidity

There’s been broad agreement with the criticisms I have leveled against the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand over the past week, but some people have told me I was unduly […]

Jim Pollard

The foreign media are failing Thailand: the FCCT responds

Jim Pollard, a sub-editor at The Nation newspaper and associate director for programmes at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, has responded to the article I published yesterday, The Foreign Media […]

No comment

The foreign media are failing Thailand

It’s time the truth is told about an archaic, elitist and secretive institution that is increasingly out of touch with reality and badly failing the people of 21st century Thailand. […]

Bhumibol at his coronation, 1950

“Look at me! I’d make a better king than my brother.”

In a previous article three months ago, I shared some intriguing audio files from “The Landon Chronicles”, the recorded reminiscences of Kenneth Landon, who was the U.S. State Department’s top […]

THE ROYAL PROCESSION OF THE LATE PRINCESS MOTHER

The Royal Court of Thailand

In 1998, the BBC broadcast a two-part documentary on Thailand’s royal family, entitled The Royal Court of Thailand. Unlike the previous BBC documentary on the subject, Soul of a Nation, […]