Freedom of expression during each prime minister's tenure

Every prime minister since 1991, ranked by how the freedom of expression changed from their first day in office. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.

#	Prime minister	In office	Total	Per year	Chart
1	Prayut Chan-o-cha	9 Jun 2019 – 22 Aug 2023	+16.6 points 2018 → 2023	+3.3 points/yr
2	DP Chuan Leekpai	23 Sep 1992 – 13 Jul 1995	+9.0 points 1992 → 1995	+3.0 points/yr
3	DP Abhisit Vejjajiva	17 Dec 2008 – 5 Aug 2011	+3.4 points 2008 → 2011	+1.1 points/yr
4	DP Chuan Leekpai	9 Nov 1997 – 9 Feb 2001	−3.0 points 1997 → 2000	−1.0 points/yr
5	TRT Thaksin Shinawatra	9 Feb 2001 – 19 Sep 2006	−14.6 points 2000 → 2006	−2.4 points/yr
6	N Prayut Chan-o-cha	22 May 2014 – 9 Jun 2019	−24.5 points 2013 → 2018	−4.9 points/yr

Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last count complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that count had no data, or because the period cut it); Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in points; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. points, 0 to 100, V-Dem's 0 to 1 index times 100 · V-Dem Institute, V-Dem dataset v16 (v2x_freexp_altinf): the freedom of expression and alternative sources of information index, the press, academic and private speech and the media's independence, as V-Dem's country experts rate them, with V-Dem's confidence interval; the 0 to 1 index times 100 · Thailand data · as of Aug 2026.