PHUKET: Support around the world is mounting for Phuket journalists Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian who still face a farcical prosecution for criminal defamation from the Royal Thai Navy.
Senior officers have so far resisted calls to kill the ill-conceived case despite the finding of bodies in jungle camps and boatpeople on the seas proving that everything the pair have been writing since 2008 has a strong factual basis.
Coming up soon in June will be the US State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons report, which featured the nonsensical case against the journalists last year as a provocation for downgrading Thailand to Tier 3.
More intense scrutiny is likely to come from the media in Thailand and overseas in the next few weeks.
Here's what a popular Australian weekend newspaper had to say:
AUSTRALIAN journalist Peter Greste is free to enjoy prawns, and sand between his toes, but another Australian reporter has done a little jail time, and only Uncle Sam's intervention may save him from a lot more.
The Abbott government is powerless to stop the prosecution of Alan (Moro) Morison, who edits a news website on Phuket Island and has inflamed the deskbound admirals of the Royal Thai Navy.
It took just a single paragraph from a Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters report on the violent persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority to land Morison in the clink for five hours, sharing a little cell with 90 others, including a confessed wife-killer.
Backers cobbled together $3000 bail to get him out, but he's charged with criminal defamation and computer crimes that call for a maximum of seven years' porridge, or in this case, rice with weevils.
Somehow the US State Department paid attention to the reporting on the Phuketwan website, which put Thailand among the worst of the people-trafficking nations.
When Moro and Thai colleague Chutima Sidasathian go back to court for a three-day hearing in mid-July, they hope US influence or attention from some arms of the touchy Thai government may kill the case.
Morison, 67, slipped away from jobs at sheets such as 'The Age' to work around Asia for 15 years, the last seven on his Phuket site.
At one stage Thai hearts melted sufficiently to allow him back to Melbourne briefly to visit his ailing 91-year-old father.
While he was here he attended a Fitzroy bar fundraiser for his defence, organised by Age-old hacks David Harrison and Mark Baker for the Melbourne Press Club.
As Moro tells it, drug smugglers switched to people trafficking because it's better paid and the law doesn't touch them.
Up to 100,000 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh sail away in the October to April fleeing season, most hoping to get to Malaysia.
Many end up on the Thai side of the border with Burma (Myanmar), where they are beaten up, their cries transmitted by phone to relatives back home who must cough up, or else.
Republished with no permission from
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Declaration of Interest
Phuketwan journalists Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison are being sued by the Royal Thai Navy for criminal defamation and a Computer Crimes Act count over a 41-word paragraph republished from a Reuters series on Burma's Rohingya boatpeople.
The series won a Pulitzer Prize. The paragraph did not actually mention the Royal Thai Navy.
The service's precedent-setting military-versus-media action predates last May's Army takeover in Thailand. A trial resumes in July. Maximum penalty for the pair is seven years' jail.
Morison and Khun Chutima remain on bail of 100,000 baht each, provided by the Andaman Community Rights and Legal Aid Centre, based in Trang province. Other groups and organisations have also offered financial help.
Most of the legal costs of the case are being met by the London-based Media Legal Defence Initiative.
In Thailand, a group of more than 10 lawyers have teamed up to provide legal counsel. They include the Human Rights Lawyers' Association, iLaw and SR Law.
WATCH How Trafficking Works
Phuketwan Investigative reporter Chutima Sidasathian, still being sued for criminal defamation over a Reuters paragraph: ''It's worse and worse, day by day. Nobody cares''.
http://journeyman.tv/67116/short-films/rohingya-hd.html
LISTEN The Rohingya Solution
A tragedy almost beyond words has been unfolding in Thailand, where a human smuggling network is thriving with the full knowledge of some corrupt law enforcement officers. Alan Morison of Phuketwan talks to Australia's AM program.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4231108.htm
Senior officers have so far resisted calls to kill the ill-conceived case despite the finding of bodies in jungle camps and boatpeople on the seas proving that everything the pair have been writing since 2008 has a strong factual basis.
Coming up soon in June will be the US State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons report, which featured the nonsensical case against the journalists last year as a provocation for downgrading Thailand to Tier 3.
More intense scrutiny is likely to come from the media in Thailand and overseas in the next few weeks.
Here's what a popular Australian weekend newspaper had to say:
AUSTRALIAN journalist Peter Greste is free to enjoy prawns, and sand between his toes, but another Australian reporter has done a little jail time, and only Uncle Sam's intervention may save him from a lot more.
The Abbott government is powerless to stop the prosecution of Alan (Moro) Morison, who edits a news website on Phuket Island and has inflamed the deskbound admirals of the Royal Thai Navy.
It took just a single paragraph from a Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters report on the violent persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority to land Morison in the clink for five hours, sharing a little cell with 90 others, including a confessed wife-killer.
Backers cobbled together $3000 bail to get him out, but he's charged with criminal defamation and computer crimes that call for a maximum of seven years' porridge, or in this case, rice with weevils.
Somehow the US State Department paid attention to the reporting on the Phuketwan website, which put Thailand among the worst of the people-trafficking nations.
When Moro and Thai colleague Chutima Sidasathian go back to court for a three-day hearing in mid-July, they hope US influence or attention from some arms of the touchy Thai government may kill the case.
Morison, 67, slipped away from jobs at sheets such as 'The Age' to work around Asia for 15 years, the last seven on his Phuket site.
At one stage Thai hearts melted sufficiently to allow him back to Melbourne briefly to visit his ailing 91-year-old father.
While he was here he attended a Fitzroy bar fundraiser for his defence, organised by Age-old hacks David Harrison and Mark Baker for the Melbourne Press Club.
As Moro tells it, drug smugglers switched to people trafficking because it's better paid and the law doesn't touch them.
Up to 100,000 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh sail away in the October to April fleeing season, most hoping to get to Malaysia.
Many end up on the Thai side of the border with Burma (Myanmar), where they are beaten up, their cries transmitted by phone to relatives back home who must cough up, or else.
Republished with no permission from
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Declaration of Interest
Phuketwan journalists Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison are being sued by the Royal Thai Navy for criminal defamation and a Computer Crimes Act count over a 41-word paragraph republished from a Reuters series on Burma's Rohingya boatpeople.
The series won a Pulitzer Prize. The paragraph did not actually mention the Royal Thai Navy.
The service's precedent-setting military-versus-media action predates last May's Army takeover in Thailand. A trial resumes in July. Maximum penalty for the pair is seven years' jail.
Morison and Khun Chutima remain on bail of 100,000 baht each, provided by the Andaman Community Rights and Legal Aid Centre, based in Trang province. Other groups and organisations have also offered financial help.
Most of the legal costs of the case are being met by the London-based Media Legal Defence Initiative.
In Thailand, a group of more than 10 lawyers have teamed up to provide legal counsel. They include the Human Rights Lawyers' Association, iLaw and SR Law.
WATCH How Trafficking Works
Phuketwan Investigative reporter Chutima Sidasathian, still being sued for criminal defamation over a Reuters paragraph: ''It's worse and worse, day by day. Nobody cares''.
http://journeyman.tv/67116/short-films/rohingya-hd.html
LISTEN The Rohingya Solution
A tragedy almost beyond words has been unfolding in Thailand, where a human smuggling network is thriving with the full knowledge of some corrupt law enforcement officers. Alan Morison of Phuketwan talks to Australia's AM program.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4231108.htm
Dear Alan and Khun Chutima
Your widespread support is matched only by the foolishness of the decision to charge you.
Posted by Ian Yarwood on June 6, 2015 11:08