Rights Group Criticizes Thai PM’s Cardboard Cutout Gesture

Rights Group Criticizes Thai PM’s Cardboard Cutout Gesture
Cardboard cut-outs of Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha are pictured at Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, Jan. 9, 2018. Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha
|Updated:

BANGKOK—Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, known for his temperamental outbursts, has adopted a unique tactic to avoid tricky questions from reporters—leave a cardboard cutout of himself for reporters to quiz.

But the gesture has been criticized by Human Rights Watch which said it shows the military junta chief’s “contempt of media criticism” in a country yet to restore democracy since a 2014 coup.