ZeZe na Pombejra has family ties to both Thaksin and Abhisit, but it was her complaint to CNN that turned heads - and earned death threats
The diminutive, 25-year-old Napas, who goes by the nickname ZeZe, is related to both Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's wife Pimpen (whose mother's maiden name is na Pombejra) and Khunying Pojaman na Pombejra, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra's exwife (who has reverted to her maiden name).
"My greatgrandfather and the father of Thanpuying Phoonsuk Banomyong were brothers," says ZeZe, an associate lawyer at a Bangkok firm that handles primarily corporate and commercial cases and international contract disputes.
Thanpuying Phoonsuk was the wife of another former premier, Pridi Banomyong, and a mem¬ber of the same extensive clan, the na Pombejras.
Educated overseas while her own father's work took the family to various countries, ZeZe became fluent in English - and also used to speaking out when she felt the moment demanded it.
"You don't have to be particularly interested in politics to watch the news and care about what's going on around you," she says. "It's hard not to have an opinion, as a human being. When events affect us, you can't pretend they're not there."
Watching the CNN news reports from Bangkok in April and May, ZeZe was appalled by what she saw as distortions of the truth, as were many others.
Foreign correspondents for the network gave the world daily accounts of "poor farmers" standing up to military might to try and restore Thaksin to power after his ouster and replacement by an "illegitimate" government.
ZeZe vented her frustration on Facebook, earning general applause, and then - again, like many others - she wrote a let¬ter to CNN, except that hers ending up getting a lot more notice.
She initially wrote an open letter to CNN and then copied it to the BBC and other media networks.
People in both the Netherlands and Spain translated it and posted it online, and in late May, ZeZe says, "I was visiting a friend in South Korea and she introduced me to her friend by saying, 'This is ZeZe - she's the one who wrote the let¬ter!'
"Ninety per cent of the feedback from the public to my open letter was positive. Someone posted it on the OK Nation blog and I got email from all over the world."
There have been critics, too - millions of Thais found the CNN reports perfectly accurate - but ZeZe says she has no problem with that "as long as they're con¬structive".
"Some people disagreed with me but liked my initiative in speaking up."
On the other hand, ZeZe's mother was understandably upset to read comments on Thailanguage Web boards that threatened her daughter with rape and even murder.
At her parents' imploring, ZeZe has stopped driving by herself to work, wears sunglasses in public, bolstered her Facebook priva¬cy settings and is more careful about what she says on Twitter.
Some foreign journalists, meanwhile, have taken umbrage with her.
"They get sensitive," ZeZe says. "I attacked one of them and they feel I attacked them all.
"This might be why doctors get upset over the proposed malpractice law - it's like, when you attack one of us, you ruin everyone's credibility.
"It's understandable," she says. "I didn't realise this before. I just believed that journalists are professionals and experts at what they do, so we expect them to abide by their own code of ethics."
ZeZe was in England pursuing her master's degree when Thaksin was pulled from power in the 2006 coup.
"I wanted to know what had happened, so I checked all the news websites." It's remained her habit - as well as the The Nation, Bangkok Post, CNN and BBC, she reads the New York Times, Al Jazeera and Reuters.
"But typically it will all start with CNN, because wherever you are in the world, that's your first stop for international coverage," she says.
ZeZe actually picked up some journalism experience working briefly for "Newsline" on Thai TV. She has a reporter's natural curiosity, and courage to spare.
She attended April's rally of "multicolour shirts" on Silom Road, getting video for her Facebook page. When M79 grenades exploded there the next day, her parents found out she'd been to the rally and forbade her from attending any more, even taking her car away.
"I think they were sort of proud that I took the initiative, though, because my moth¬er, who's also on Facebook, saw my video there and clicked 'Like'!
"Only the night before she was scolding me - 'It's not worth your life!' But I don't regret going. I got to talk to a soldier. He was really sweet. I hope he came out okay.
"Normally you don't think about how soldiers feel, right? They were standing there for hours in the heat."
ZeZe says she felt no sense of danger at the rally.
"At one point some motorcycletaxi drivers were throwing marbles from the bridge, but people were just warning each other to look out.
"I'm pretty sure that on the red side, people were also taking care of each other. I think it's a very Thai thing.
"But I was hearing both sides calling for democracy, for justice, and I thought, 'They're asking for the same thing, so why are they on different sides?' That was a very sad moment for me."