Thai photojournalist Nattaphon Phanphongsanon has faced continuous police surveillance in the latter half of 2024. Nattaphon said plainclothes police officers monitor his apartment building and follow him to a coffee shop he frequented. They also follow him to events about politics and took pictures of him.
He recalled an incident where he came home at 3AM, and as he was heading to the parking lot, a motorcycle followed him. The rider was dressed like a deliveryman, but parked his motorcycle behind the building where residents park theirs. He was suspicious and so did not go inside the building immediately. When he did, he saw the man waiting in the lobby. He said that the incident was strange and made him scared, since he was being monitored even at a very late hour.
He noted that the police did not speak to the building's management, only waiting in the surrounding area which anyone can enter, but has likely spoken to the security guard. The surveillance made him felt violated, paranoid, and that he could not trust the building security because he was worried that the police would hire the security guard to watch him instead.
Nattaphon also faced a period of police harassment in April 2023, when officers were stationed in front of his condominium and coerced the building’s management into giving them information about him and CCTV footage of his activity. He also noticed CCTV cameras installed in front of his apartment building and pointing towards the entrance. The cameras have not been removed.
In February 2024, Nattaphon was charged with being an accessory to damaging a historic site and vandalism for photographing an activist spraying painting protest symbols onto the wall of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok. He suspected that the police may be monitoring him to look for more evidence in the case against him and speculated that they may be watching to see if he would bring an activist home.