Pattaya expat threatened with jail after posting negative restaurant review online

[webfact]

Pattaya expat threatened with jail after posting negative restaurant review online

 

FILE photo

 

An expat in Pattaya has been harassed, bullied and threatened with legal action after posting a negative restaurant review on Facebook.

 

The unnamed man posted the review in the popular Breakfast Club Pattaya group.

 

The group has over 40,000 members who share photos and short reviews of food they’ve bought at eateries across Pattaya.

 

However, on Sunday an administrator of the group revealed that one its long standing members had been been “harassed and threatened with legal action” by a restaurant owner in Pattaya after posting a negative review.

 

In order to avoid further legal ramifications Thaivisa has chosen not to publish the name of the restaurant or its owner.

 

Commenting on the incident, a statement from the Breakfast Club Pattaya read:

 

“For the first time in 4 years one of our members has been harassed and threatened with legal action.

 

“For us as the admin team we believe this crosses the line.

 

“The guy that was threatened is an extremely well respected member of the Pattaya community and a fantastic contributor to this page”, the post read.

 

Rather than harassing people who may have left a negative review, the administrators of the group urged restaurateurs to use social media to their advantage when responding to reviews.

 

 

“There is not a restaurant in the world that has never received a bad review on social media, online or in the press, the administrators said.

 

“Some restaurants out here deal with bad reviews to their advantage.

 

“Bullying our members is not on.

 

“Pattaya is an extremely small community , word gets round [sic] very quickly if a decent guy has been threatened in this manner .

 

“The review has been removed by the original poster .

 

“It’s a very disappointing state of affairs when restaurants resort to these kind of tactics.”

 

Defamation, which is a criminal offence in Thailand, is punishable by up to two years in jail.

 

Commentators have said previously that Thailand’s strict defamation laws have been used as a weapon by the powerful to silence critics.

 

Last year Thaivisa was made aware of a similar incident in Chiang Mai where a restauranter threatened legal action after mistakenly believing that customers had left negative reviews about his restaurant online.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-03-27

[mikebell]

3 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s strict defamation laws have been used as a weapon by the powerful to silence critics.

If that doesn't work there's always guns.  The name of this restaurant MUST become public knowledge and be dealt with by the Court of Public Opinion.

[darksidedog]

The restaurant owner must be an idiot. Pattaya is a small town so it is not going to be difficult for those of us who live here to find out which one it was. One wonders how bad the review was and if the restaurant is actually doing anything other than making threats to solve the problem, i.e. improving their apparently fairly crap food.

[HLover]

14 minutes ago, mikebell said:

If that doesn't work there's always guns.  The name of this restaurant MUST become public knowledge and be dealt with by the Court of Public Opinion.

True, just pop on Facebook and ask what the name of this amazing restaurant or fantastic owner is.

[Anythingleft?]

Defamation, which is a criminal offence in Thailand, is punishable by up to two years in jail.

Commentators have said previously that Thailand’s strict defamation laws have been used as a weapon by the powerful to silence critics.



This law in its current presentation is crippling Thailand from moving forward...

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[Lamkyong]

so where did the actual Jail THREAT come from  ??

[PatOngo]

Telling the truth comes with a heavy price, as witnessed on numerous occasions.

[mcdiddly]

The definition of defamation is; the action of damaging the good reputation of someone; slander or libel. Slander and libel is based on the legal primis that the statement is false. An opinion is subjective. 

[marko kok prong]

Loss of face for the owner in Thailand this equals = descent into madness and probable homicide.

[champers]

Perhaps someone could post up a photo?

[KhunBENQ]

1 hour ago, Anythingleft? said:

Defamation, which is a criminal offence in Thailand, is punishable by up to two years in jail.

Hypocrisy and "face saving".

Two characteristics that keep this country down.

How can you improve without facing the truth?

I could hardly believe the verdict of the Andy Hall case.

[Samui Bodoh]

Dear Pattaya members,

 

Apropos of nothing in particular... 

 

Why don't you all start having informal conversations regarding the general nature of life in Pattaya?

 

Just a random thought...

 

[kotsak]

 

 

[4MyEgo]

I am going to Pattaya shortly, anyone care to recommend this good restaurant for me, starting with its name, I will then let everyone know what my thoughts are 

[chuang]

The restaurant is only taking a cue from the army...

[kannot]

More and more now and not just in Thailand (although its pretty strong here) saying something you think is becoming a  serious threat to your  health, In Europe  just open your  mouth about Islam and Muslims and you are Islamaphobic or "inciting terrorism"

You can only say  happy  positive things here that are shallow and empty, anything else is seriously frowned upon especially in "Farcebook"

[crazykopite]

I will keep my thoughts to myself ! yet another reason why I will never visit Pattaya.

[Doug Jane]

1 hour ago, darksidedog said:

The restaurant owner must be an idiot. Pattaya is a small town so it is not going to be difficult for those of us who live here to find out which one it was. 

 

42 minutes ago, champers said:

Perhaps someone could post up a photo?

An excellent idea.... for those of us who don’t live in patts, but may travel there (what’s that dearest? Not over your dead what? ?) perhaps a photo here captioned “wink wink nod nod”

[Bob12345]

55 minutes ago, mcdiddly said:

The definition of defamation is; the action of damaging the good reputation of someone; slander or libel. Slander and libel is based on the legal primis that the statement is false. An opinion is subjective. 

Not in Thailand.

 

Even when telling the thruth you could end up in jail.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Sad state of affairs. The government, the current or any former ones, could have changed this law.

 

But they didn't, and never have. Because, the government, the Army, the police and corporate interests all use it to silence and intimidate their critics or potential critics.

 

As said, this is another of those factors that keeps this country down and moving backwards.

 

[ostyan]

I absolutely agree with the restaurant owner. We should treat this case seriously. At the end of the day, it is not just killing a policeman or killing a hubby. I would vote for arresting the traitor, waterboard him, should learn his connections, etc. 

It is necessary, 'cos he mustn't be Thai, Thais don't do like this , it is a farang.  How dares he say or write his opinion? In Thailand? A lifetime jail sentence is a minimum. 

[gbswales]

Seems that this kind of thuggery works since everyone, including this forum, has just rolled over and given up.  This will just encourage others to behave in the same way!  The name of this establishment and the owner should be published everywhere - that might make other businesses think twice. 

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, mok199 said:

.

Was that a restaurant review???

[sanemax]

It was quite probably just a meaningless threat with nothing to be concerned about .

   Its very unlikely that legal action will be taken , just a empty threat

[Jack100]

Perhaps someone could key in a list of all the other restaurants who didn't threaten the writer and we could work it out that way . !

[Mattd]

I am a member of this Facebook group and saw the original post about this made by the group's founder, it in turn generated a lot of posts by members, asking for the restaurant to be named and shamed (the moderators had removed the original post for legal reasons) the moderators have said they will not post the restaurant name, this is due to legal worries.

 

I personally did not see the post, but have read thousands of reviews on the group, some good, bad, terrible, etc. 

The whole purpose of the group is to let members review restaurants and other food outlets, not just in Pattaya, but anywhere in the world.

 

In general it works well and does give some insight in to the food scene and what is good or bad, like all chat type groups, you can take some comments with a pinch of salt.

 

Everybody should be entitled to an opinion and not everyone will agree with it, especially when it comes to food and service.

Unfortunately Thailand has not quite developed to the stage of being mature enough to accept criticism, hence the stupid defamation laws.

 

The restaurant owner must be easily upset if going to take legal action, personally I hope it costs him or her their business, it deserves nothing less!

[mark01]

The review was taken down so TV probably doesn't know the restaurant name.

Just regurgitating this facbook crap from a group that probably only has a couple of hundred active members.

[geriatrickid]

Very simple solution. Post the situation to other websites outside of Thailand and let the world react. Such threats are useless against sites such as Trip Adviser as they are hosted outside Thailand.

[midas]

8 minutes ago, sanemax said:

It was quite probably just a meaningless threat with nothing to be concerned about .

   Its very unlikely that legal action will be taken , just a empty threat

where is your evidence that it is just an empty threat?

A few years ago I received an official email from a lawyer notifying me they would be suing me for defamation simply because I had complained to an Australian company that their agent in Thailand didn't seem to be ensuring that there was a regular supply of their product on the shelves in the supermarkets in Chiang Mai. I believe following that the Australian company instructed this Bangkok-based agent and their lawyer to back off pursuing me for defamation.

Unlike you I don't think it would be an empty threat.

[Doug Jane]

1 minute ago, geriatrickid said:

Very simple solution. Post the situation to other websites outside of Thailand and let the world react. Such threats are useless against sites such as Trip Adviser as they are hosted outside Thailand.

Good idea... along with the Andy hall debacle... and hopefully the international transparency group picks up on this kind of shame and reacts accordingly.