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. Thanks for watching! Make sure to subscribe so you can catch up

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