No, one of these photos shows a park in south Thailand -- it does not show a littered park after a pro-government event in Bangkok
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on January 20, 2020 at 06:25
- 5 min read
- By AFP Thailand
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The photos were shared hundreds of times after being published in this Facebook post on January 13, 2020.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:
The post features a collage of three photos: the top photo shows a park littered with rubbish and a filled blue-coloured bin; the bottom left photo shows a pickup truck parked along a small road surrounded by trees; the bottom right photo shows a grass field with three buildings visible in the background.
The yellow superimposed text on the first photo translates to: “At Lumpini Park”, while the text in red, placed across the two bottom photos, read “at Rot Fai Park”.
Lumpini Park and Rot Fai Park are both public parks in Bangkok.
The Thai-language caption translates to English as: “Top photo from Lumpini Park 12/1/2020 #WalkToCheerUncle / Bottom photo from Rot Fai Park 12/1/2020 #RunAgainstDictatorship”.
“Uncle” is a reference to Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-cha, who is nicknamed “Uncle Tu”.
The post refers to a pro-government and anti-government event held at two parks in the Thai capital in January 2020.
According to this report published by Al-Jazeera on January 12, 2020, Rot Fai Park hosted an anti-government “Run Against Dictatorship” march, and a pro-government “Walk to Cheer Uncle” event was held in Lumpini Park, both on January 12, 2020.
The photos in the misleading post was also shared on Facebook here and here, and on Twitter here, here and here, alongside a similar claim.
The photos have been shared in a misleading context; the first photo was taken at Khwan Muang Park in Yala Province, Thailand after the park hosted an annual Children’s Day event.
According to this report published by the English-language Thai newspaper Khaosod English on January 13, 2020, image was taken from a Facebook page named Pattani News.
Below is the screenshot of Khaosod English article:
It reads in part: “But it turned out the photo of dirty “Lumpini Park” was actually taken from Pattani News Facebook page, which shows Suan Khwan Muang Park in Yala province after a Children's Day event was held there on Saturday. The page chided festival-goers for not picking trash after themselves.”
Below is a screenshot of the post published by Pattani News:
The post’s Thai-language caption translates to English as: “Every year, there will be snow. This morning in Yala where we have the most beautiful landscape, where people say it’s the cleanest and most liveable city, just Children’s Day and it’s a mess. Let’s help each other, when you travel, please put all your rubbish in the bin. Khwan Muang Park is full of litter. Please help spread the word: January 12, 2020.”
Thailand celebrates Children’s Day on the second Saturday of January each year. This year’s event was held on January 11.
During a conversation via Line Messenger, a spokesperson for Yala police told AFP that the photo was taken at Khwan Muang Park in Yala after a Children’s Day event, and sent AFP a photo taken from the same angle as that shown in the misleading post.
Below is a comparison of the photo AFP received from local police (L) and the photo in the misleading Facebook post (R):
Local police also sent AFP a close-up photo of rubbish bins used exclusively in Yala.
Below is a comparison of the photo AFP received from local police (L) and the rubbish bin, circled red by AFP, in the misleading Facebook post (R):
Tanawat Wongchai, organiser of the “Run Against Dictatorship” event told AFP via Line Messenger on January 15, 2020, that the other two photos in the misleading post were taken by event organisers after the event ended in Bangkok.
“The original photos were taken by event organisers. The truck was used to transport the garbage we collected after the fun run activity out of the park,” he said.
Below are screenshot comparisons of the original high-resolution photos (L) and the photo in the misleading Facebook post (R):
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