In days gone by, when monarchies were still considered a legitimate form of government and not just a tradition kept alive for the sake of tourist dollars, it seems like it would have made sense that there’d be laws on the books making it illegal to insult the king/queen/royal family. But when America decided that monarchy wasn’t going to be a respectable form of government any more, the first thing on the Bill of Rights they put down was the right to freedom of speech. The French, in their concurrent Revolution, put similar guarantees into their Declaration of Rights. So those of us living in the world of the European Enlightenment take for granted the fact that it is still illegal to criticize monarchs in some parts of the world. Laws prohibiting such criticisms are often referred to by the fancy French term Lèse-majesté.
Thailand is particularly notorious for invoking its lèse-majesté laws. The Reuters article is nice and concise. As of the summer of 2014, Thailand has been under the control of a military junta, i.e. a military dictatorship. Democracy has never been terribly stable in Thailand since its introduction in 1932, having had 17 constitutions or charters since then, the last constitution being established in 2007. The king has had little in the way of actual political power, but he is still an immensely respected figurehead domestically. The current military dictatorship has been charging people for insulting the king (and even his dog), presumably because they are trying to give the appearance of protecting the dignity of the State, for which the king is still a (figuratively) powerful representation. And these charges result in serious punishments, such as several years in prison. Lèse-majesté charges in Europe tend to result in much lighter (although still completely uncivilized) punishments, and occur with less frequency.
“One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in Kings, is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule, by giving mankind an ass for a lion.” -Thomas Paine in Common Sense
