As Thailand’s youth-led protests gather momentum after strict COVID-19 lockdowns muzzled the freedom to peacefully assemble for months, newspaper coverage of recent rallies has focused overwhelmingly on clashes between protesters and police, portraying the demonstrations as a battleground with petrol bombs and fireworks unleashed on one side, and repeated use of tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets on the other.
These media reports, however, unfairly depict the mostly peaceful demonstrations and distract attention from the consistently brutal treatment of child protesters by the Thai police.
Many students assembling at Bangkok’s Din Daeng intersection – a key site of recent protests – are in their early teens, with some as young as 11. Some have lost parents to COVID-19 and have dropped out of school or work as they struggle to cope. Yet authorities continue to violently…
