Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing yes we're discussing obscenity, pornography and criminal law in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Thai Examiner, thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: US internet star arrested at top Thai hotel for live video stream while lap dancing on his girlfriend. A lot going on in here. As per usual the Thai Examiner, very meticulous in fact finding it seems and reporting, so I urge those who are watching this video go read that article in detail. I am going to quote a small excerpt here, quoting directly: "29-year-old US live streaming star (I am going to go ahead and redact it. I don't really prefer to use names and things on here) "US live streaming star in despair after being charged by police under Thailand's strict pornography laws after a live streaming event at one of Bangkok's most upmarket hotels on June 28th last when, without seeking permission from the hotel's Management, he broadcasted a worldwide live stream of himself giving a lap dance to his girlfriend dressed in women's lingerie." Now some of the clauses here, you might be unclear. I believe based on further reading of the article is that this gentleman was dressed in the lingerie, not the female, he was dressed in the lingerie giving her the lap dance. That's my understanding of how this thing went down, having not seen it but just have read this article, that was how it was described further in that article. Again go read that for yourself. 

A couple of things going on here. First of all "without seeking permission from the hotel's management", that was big. Also bear in mind this is occurring in public. If you read in the article, it was like in the in the restaurant or like the pub area or something of this particular hotel. I don't know if this was spontaneous or what, it just sort of happened although one wonders if a man has to change into lingerie how exactly spontaneous that's going to be but whatever, everybody's got their own journey maybe. I don't know. I don't know how that occurred. The long story short is this happened and this person has now been arrested and you have got to really be aware and I know it's easily said for someone that has been here a while to say well this is Thailand and you need to know the mores and sort of the customs and decorum but if you are new here you sort of don't know. Well it's on you to know, really and honestly this also, I have got a chalk this up as one of those things that "would you do this in your home country? would you dress up and give a lap dance in the middle of a public area in your home country on the live stream?” I have to ask that question. Meanwhile, yeah Thailand has strict laws on obscenity and pornography and understand Obscenity Law which I have studied fairly deeply in an academic sense, at one time I was a professor discussing legal matters especially in a media context and obscenity is an interesting one. We don't see a lot of jurisprudence on it now mostly because people are viewing what was once considered obscene material in private. So one thing that really decreased the number of Obscenity Law cases at least in the American context, was the creation of VHS tapes because it was being viewed in the privacy of people's own home, a lot less likely the Court can get involved in an obscenity contest and I think that is a big element of what happened here with regard to being arrested. We have done videos in the past on pornography matters where even people in private have been arrested creating what was described or allegedly described as pornography here in Thailand even in private. But a big element of this right here, it doesn't sound like any nudity per se or anything but it was the fact it was happening in public and that makes a big, big difference especially with regard to how this is going to be viewed. When you get into that article you will see that the Manager basically of the hotel was very upset and made a really big deal about it and appears to have been the one, well I don't know who did what but the police were called and it looks like charges have been filed and this person is going to have to basically face these charges and is probably going to have to deal with an adjudication on this matter and it remains to be seen what the final verdict will be. 

But long story short is to understand yeah pornography is illegal in Thailand. Now again I think this case is somewhat anomalous. You have got to kind of ask the question if any of the elements here weren't there, for example, if it wasn't happening in public would this arrest have gone down? If it wasn't being broadcast on the live stream would this have gone down? If this person wasn't flagrantly apparently engaging, I mean again it's my understanding from the article it was the male that was in the lingerie, maybe that had something to do with it. To my mind the two big elements here is that it happened in public and that there was a live streaming element and that caused some real consternation on the part of the locals.

Look again, we have done videos on this before. Filming people in public without their permission is illegal in Thailand. There is just a sense of decorum in Thailand, a privacy and decorum that exists here. Sometimes it's called "kreng jai" the notion of loosely translated "civility", just how you act in public spaces. I noticed in the article they said "well even discussion of sexual topics can get you in trouble." I find that hard to believe. Merely talking about something, unless it's just absolutely prurient, where it is very vulgar almost for the sake of vulgarity but describing things, talking in an adult mature manner about topics pertaining to sex and sexuality, I don't think is ever really going to get anybody in trouble in Thailand. Where this thing sort of came to a head if you will, where this thing really metastasized into a real problem for this person, apparently for this hotel proprietor, for the owner of this establishment was that it was flagrant really. As we have discussed in other videos for example with regard to the definition of prostitution as a crime in Thailand, there is a promiscuity element, I sometimes refer to it as an open and notorious element where if it's being highly indiscreet, that in and of itself is an element of that particular crime. These are things that you have to understand when you are doing analysis of how Thailand looks at matters of expression and obscenity and pornography. You have got to look at it in kind of a totality of the circumstances sort of analysis and understand that again, brazenness, flamboyance, these kinds of things are going to factor in and cause real problems associated with those who are; in their home country they may be as they noted in this article they brought up the First Amendment in the United States, although I have got to be honest with you, dressing up, although I haven't been back to US for a prolonged period of time, I have only been back here recently for a very brief period of time, maybe I am a little attenuated in my thinking but to just break out into a lap dance with a male dressed up in lingerie and then to broadcast it, I'm not totally sure that on private property you can refuse service to that person. Now would they be arrested for that per se? Maybe, if they don't leave but the activity in and of itself might not be considered criminal. But here in Thailand, look no there are pretty strict rules regarding sort of cultural norms and decorum in public places and that is where I think that this thing, the charge is probably bigger than the sum of its parts although that is not even the right thing to say really. The elements of this all sort of came together to create a pretty bad legal situation for the people involved because again the sort of open and notoriousness of it and the fact that they were engaging in it in a public space.