Gordon was sentenced in December [JURIST report] after pleading guilty in October. UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression Frank La Rue [official website] recently condemned the lese majeste law [JURIST report] shortly after the guilty plea was submitted: "The threat of a long prison sentence and vagueness of what kinds of expression constitute defamation, insult, or threat to the monarchy, encourage self-censorship and stifle important debates on matters of public interest, thus putting in jeopardy the right to freedom of opinion and expression. ... This is exacerbated by the fact that the charges can be brought by private individuals and trials are often closed to the public." In 2009 Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] called for a public trial [JURIST report] for a Thai political activist accused of lese majeste. In 2009 a Thai court sentenced an anti-coup protestor to 18 years in prison. Shortly afterward Awzar Thi, a member of the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong, wrote that in enforcing the law the Thailand judiciary was discrediting itself [JURIST comment] "in its hurry to defend increasingly outdated social arrangements."