South-east Asian Thailand, or The Kingdom of Thailand, has been heavily shaped by Buddhism, its monarchy and military. With a population of 69 million, Thailand has experienced domestic political trouble since 2001 when Thaksin Shinawatra took office as prime minister until he was ousted by the military in 2006.
In regards to education, Thailand went from a 31 percent illiteracy in 1990 to 78 percent in 2011 respectively. While the country develops economically and in many ways socially, the media in Thailand is almost entirely controlled by the state and military. And while technically the media are free to report on corruption, human rights abuses and policies, according to the the BBC, "A strict lese majeste law prohibits media in Thailand from reporting anything that could be deemed critical of the royal family, and journalists tend to exercise self-censorship regarding the military, the judiciary and other sensitive issues."
