TWO PHUKET residents began preparing in earnest yesterday for a court case that never should have happened. Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian of the internet news site Phuketwan face an ill-considered charge of criminal defamation launched by the commander of the local Royal Thai Navy base.
There are numerous problems with this serious case, which could wind up with the Australian-Thai news team in prison. The bottom line, however, is clear. The military government in charge of all legal proceedings should drop this case.
The root cause of this poorly conceived legal imbroglio is human trafficking. Because Morison and Chutima are in Phuket, they have close access to this serial crime, particularly the trafficking of boat people on the Andaman Sea.
Their website has provided many exclusive and well-informed articles about the dirty business, long before authorities in Bangkok were recently forced to take it seriously.
In late 2013, Reuters news agency ran a lengthy series of reports on human trafficking. Articles focused on the exploitation, intimidation and physical threats and violence against the Rohingya and other boat people.
The Reuters articles mentioned the navy at length, and made charges of both moral and legal offences by the navy against boat people.
In one of their articles, Morison and Chutima quoted a short excerpt from a Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters report series. That is when the navy went to court.
The officers who brought the charge through the Phuket prosecutor's office threatened to sue the actual publisher of the story - Reuters, which has a large presence in Thailand. But then they backed down.
Instead, they have pursued the internet site's two operators. They might have assumed Morison and Chutima were too small to stand up to the military, but they have been proven wrong about that at every step since late 2013.
Morison and Chutima have proven to be formidable foes against this show of military strength.
It has become impossible to find a single person outside of that Phuket naval base who supports the navy and believes that Phuketwan defamed the navy's officers and men.
Indeed, successive navy commanders and - since May of last year - the high military command of the country have refused to say a single word against Morison and Chutima.
The Phuket Criminal Court has set July 14 for the trial's opening. The Phuketwan pair sat down with their legal advisers on Monday for six weeks of intensive preparation.
As always in such cases, the Phuketwan article's accuracy is not a solid defence, although it could be a factor in mitigation.
The actual charge is that the Phuketwan article defamed the navy by presenting a story that made it look bad.
The recent revelations of human trafficking have proved how close the navy comes to the victims and their dangerous craft.
Reuters has strongly defended its stories, which some navy personnel regarded as illegal behavior.
This case is further proof of the dangers of the current law on criminal defamation. The law is frequently misused, and the worst offenders are the government and its various arms.
It is unjust that a citizen or business should face prison because of criticism of an arm of government.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha should quash the defamation charges immediately and reprimand the officers who instituted the case.
Original Report Here:
http://bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/579663/phuketwan-suit-must-end
There are numerous problems with this serious case, which could wind up with the Australian-Thai news team in prison. The bottom line, however, is clear. The military government in charge of all legal proceedings should drop this case.
The root cause of this poorly conceived legal imbroglio is human trafficking. Because Morison and Chutima are in Phuket, they have close access to this serial crime, particularly the trafficking of boat people on the Andaman Sea.
Their website has provided many exclusive and well-informed articles about the dirty business, long before authorities in Bangkok were recently forced to take it seriously.
In late 2013, Reuters news agency ran a lengthy series of reports on human trafficking. Articles focused on the exploitation, intimidation and physical threats and violence against the Rohingya and other boat people.
The Reuters articles mentioned the navy at length, and made charges of both moral and legal offences by the navy against boat people.
In one of their articles, Morison and Chutima quoted a short excerpt from a Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters report series. That is when the navy went to court.
The officers who brought the charge through the Phuket prosecutor's office threatened to sue the actual publisher of the story - Reuters, which has a large presence in Thailand. But then they backed down.
Instead, they have pursued the internet site's two operators. They might have assumed Morison and Chutima were too small to stand up to the military, but they have been proven wrong about that at every step since late 2013.
Morison and Chutima have proven to be formidable foes against this show of military strength.
It has become impossible to find a single person outside of that Phuket naval base who supports the navy and believes that Phuketwan defamed the navy's officers and men.
Indeed, successive navy commanders and - since May of last year - the high military command of the country have refused to say a single word against Morison and Chutima.
The Phuket Criminal Court has set July 14 for the trial's opening. The Phuketwan pair sat down with their legal advisers on Monday for six weeks of intensive preparation.
As always in such cases, the Phuketwan article's accuracy is not a solid defence, although it could be a factor in mitigation.
The actual charge is that the Phuketwan article defamed the navy by presenting a story that made it look bad.
The recent revelations of human trafficking have proved how close the navy comes to the victims and their dangerous craft.
Reuters has strongly defended its stories, which some navy personnel regarded as illegal behavior.
This case is further proof of the dangers of the current law on criminal defamation. The law is frequently misused, and the worst offenders are the government and its various arms.
It is unjust that a citizen or business should face prison because of criticism of an arm of government.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha should quash the defamation charges immediately and reprimand the officers who instituted the case.
Original Report Here:
http://bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/579663/phuketwan-suit-must-end
"That is when the navy went to court."
In fact, the navy went to court 5 months after Phuketwan republished the 41-word Reuters paragraph on 17 July 2013. The paragraph did not name the Royal Thai Navy.
In early December 2013 Reuters did name the Royal Thai Navy. Within 2 weeks of Reuters' December report the navy came after Phuketwan.
Posted by Ian Yarwood on June 2, 2015 07:42