Thai reporter sentenced to jail for libelling chicken farm

[Benmart]

Backwards into the darkness.

[Happy Grumpy]

Clucking madness. 

[emptypockets]

If they ever decided to investigate what is said on some forums there would be a lot of very, very nervous commentators in Thailand.

[Morakot]

17 hours ago, RJRS1301 said:

The courts found in favour of the workers and ordered compensation.

How could the journalist be guilty of libel, does not make sense to this mind here

 

In Thailand, the truth is only a defence against libel, if revealing the "damaging" truth is in the wider public interest.

 

The most alarming thing about this verdict is that telling which business has slave-labour like working conditions is apparently not something that is in the public interest. This takes us probably back prior to the 1905 Slave Abolition Act and glorifies ruthless capitalistic exploitation of the worst kind.

 

I hope people will take their custom elsewhere and don't buy products from companies like <deleted> that rely on suppliers like the said Thammakaset farm.

[brianthainess]

At last someone who deserves bail, and not the stupid sentence handed down, Thai justice is way out of whack.

[KenKadz]

"she made about a legal dispute over working conditions at the Thammakaset farm"

Maybe she said Thannakaset chicken farms has little cocks.

[kartoshka]

The Truth isn't allowed in the country.

[lemonjelly]

Stark reminder that we’re neighbors to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. I sometimes find myself expecting too much of Thailand and being subsequently disappointed.

[tomauasia]

Prayut has alot to answer for but l suspect he will vanish later. Like all guilty people seem to do. Reforms lol. I feel very sad for this lovely lady.

[tomauasia]

3 hours ago, emptypockets said:

If they ever decided to investigate what is said on some forums there would be a lot of very, very nervous commentators in Thailand.

Who cares there IT department is a joke.

[ICELANDMAN]

This matter must indicate to all those who overtly criticize the government on this forum that they should pay close attention from now on, the government is tight and afraid of losing control of the country and is showing its true face.
This and other more and more evident signs for which I deduce that my time in Thailand is now counted.

[ChipButty]

11 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

And you still want to argue that Thailand is a civilized society?

Im not even going there

[Mick501]

My doctor told me I was sick, so naturally,  I had him charged for defamation.  He can now reflect on his mistake whilst he is cooling his heels for a couple of years.   Can you imagine the world if people were allowed to tell the truth?    The horror, the horror!

[metisdead]

Some off topic posts and replies about some incidents in the US have been removed.

 

Posts containing derogatory references to the Thai Justice system have been removed as per the following:

 

2) You will not use ThaiVisa.com to post any material which is knowingly or can be reasonably construed as false, inaccurate, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any law.

You also agree not to post negative comments criticizing the legal proceedings or judgments of any Thai court of law.
 

11) You will not post slurs, degrading or overly negative comments directed towards Thailand, specific locations, Thai institutions such as the judicial or law enforcement system, Thai culture, Thai people or any other group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

[Mick501]

In other news, the Watergate journalists now say they were mistaken, and there was, in fact, no evidence of wrong doing.

[Golden Triangle]

And that ladies and gentlemen is why this country needs Khun Thanathorn & the FFP to move this repressed country forward and into freedom.

[Donutz]

This sort of thing doesn't help Thai society forwards, but far from it...

 

I feel sorry for the journalist and the general public. 

[ratcatcher]

7 hours ago, Happy Grumpy said:

Clucking madness. 

Please try to refrain from using fowl language on TVF.

[katana]

Photo of Suchanee Cloitre:

 

 

 

[RJRS1301]

22 hours ago, Lungstib said:

As I understood it from a previous case, it wasn't whether what you said was true or not, it was whether your comment caused loss of business or personal status. Just a step below Lese Majeste, the truth doesn't come into it. 

Ok, thanks for explaining the warped logic 

[GalaxyMan]

Her mistake was in adding the phrase 'slave labour' to her tweet. None of the legal proceedings had used that phrase, therefore the libel charge, which means saying something knowingly untrue, as opposed to defamation, which could be a true statement that causes 'harm'. She blew it. That's not to say that the whole thing is fair, it's not, but she blew it. The whole defamation BS in Thailand is just that, BS. You can go to jail for calling a murderer a murderer if it hurts the murderer's reputation. That is just nuts.

[MRToMRT]

What did the tweet say? 

[sammieuk1]

Poached panther and chips carry's less bird here ????

[GalaxyMan]

26 minutes ago, MRToMRT said:

What did the tweet say? 

In September 2017, Suchanee retweeted a message from former Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN) advisor Andy Hall, adding a comment which said that the court ordered the Lop Buri chicken farm owner to pay compensation for the 14 immigrant workers “for using slave labour.”

 

Yesterday’s ruling said that Suchanee’s post is considered defamation, as the phrase “slave labour” did not appear in Hall’s post and the court ruling he attached to his post. It is therefore considered damaging to the company.

 

Because the court believed that Suchanee posted her tweet without considering the damage it could cause to the company, and that she had not checked whether her message was accurate, the court considered Suchanee’s action not in good faith. She was therefore sentenced to two years in prison according to Section 328 of the Criminal Code. 

[Eligius]

On 12/25/2019 at 6:49 AM, Lungstib said:

As I understood it from a previous case, it wasn't whether what you said was true or not, it was whether your comment caused loss of business or personal status. Just a step below Lese Majeste, the truth doesn't come into it. 

Truth is strictly forbidden in 'Thai (=Free) Land', under pain of imprisonment (or worse).

Appalling. And we are about to enter the year 2020. 

In actuality, we are living 500 years back in the past ....

[MRToMRT]

Seems to me the verdict could have been correct but the sentencing seems very harsh.

[KhunFred]

Wonder if the defamation laws apply to farangs? I would say we have been defamed.

[SnakeBite]

Another reason I'm SO HAPPY to be out of Thailand.

 

[Krataiboy]

On 12/25/2019 at 1:32 PM, cheshiremusicman said:

Bloody good idea. It would keep the rats off their backs.

Presumably, they'd just go after the publisher instead of the author. Same chilling effect on free speech.

[ChipButty]

7 hours ago, KhunFred said:

Wonder if the defamation laws apply to farangs? I would say we have been defamed.

You better believe it, 5 years if it had been a Farang