Marietje Schaake, author. – Madam President, Thailand is going through a violent crisis with the red-shirt demonstrators on the one hand, and the army and the yellow-shirts on the other. Around 80 people have already lost their lives and nearly 2 000 have been injured. Democracy is threatened and the country finds itself in a government-declared state of emergency.

The state of emergency has resulted in censorship. Media sources such as TV, radio and Internet have been blocked. Halting violence is very important, and we encourage all parties to use self-restraint in the process of doing so, but in seeking to restore the calm, the state of emergency should not be abused to restrict fundamental rights and individual freedoms. Censorship needs to end and freedom of the media and expression need to be restored. These values are important for the European Parliament in their valuable relationship with Thailand.