Phuket Man Faces Defamation Charge After Posting Clip of Police Stop on TikTok

[eisfeld]

11 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

It's a criminal offence. When foreigners are charged with a criminal offense, their passports are confiscated as part of the bail conditions and your visa is cancelled. I would probably listen to the advice of the lawyers I hired.

 

Section 328. Defamation by Publication

If the offence of defamation be committed by means of publication of a document, drawing, painting, cinematography film, picture or letters made visible by any means, gramophone record or another recording instruments, recording picture or letters, or by broadcasting or spreading picture, or by propagation by any other means, the offender shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding two years and fined not exceeding two hundred thousand Baht.

 

 

Fair enough but there is still no minimum or mandatory prison sentence and nothing about deportation.

[FruitPudding]

9 hours ago, bignok said:

Farangs arent a race. Oh dear.

Farang = white person

 

Caucasian is a race, actually.

 

Japanese, Chinese, Indian, African etc etc are not called farang.

 

The word 'farang' comes from the word 'Francais' as the French were the first white people that came to Thailand.

[Dan O]

24 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

I've been through 2 defamation court cases. Once as the plaintiff (lost due to lawyer's negligence) and once as the defendent (ended in court mediation)... and then fought a civil case for compensation. 5 times in court in total. I'm not going to get into full details, but you don't know as much as you think you do.

Maybe not but I'm not making stuff up either 

[JensenZ]

Just now, eisfeld said:

Fair enough but there is still no minimum or mandatory prison sentence and nothing about deportation.

The Thai Law doesn't specify Immigration procedures while on bail. When you are charged, you need bail, and you will hand in your passport and lose your visa. It's quite clear that if you are charged, you will serve time if proven guilty of publishing defamation. Before you can be charged, the court will schedule a court mediation session. In my case, a senior judge was appointed. They try to settle cases by mediation, but it's at the descretion of the plaintiff to agree on a settlement.

[FruitPudding]

8 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

You're quoting the wrong section of the criminal code. Skip down to Section 328 - Defamation by publication. It's always much more serious if the defamation has been published, such as posting a Tiktok video. It's very hard to get out of it too as there is a public record of exactly what was said. The video would have been watched by millions of people hence the more severe punishment.

I posted a link to the entire section of defamation in the Criminal Code.

 

Also, my point was only to highlight that anything you publicly say to damage someone's reputation is considered defamation in Thailand, not only false statements, like in other countries (which apparently the person I was replying to didn't know).

[JensenZ]

4 minutes ago, Dan O said:

Maybe not but I'm not making stuff up either 

You're wrong though. What personal experience do you have?

[JensenZ]

1 minute ago, FruitPudding said:

I posted a link to the entire section of defamation in the Criminal Code.

 

Also, my point was only to highlight that anything you publicly say to damage someone's reputation is considered defamation in Thailand, not only false statements, like in other countries (which apparently the person I was replying to didn't know).

My point was to explain that you will serve time if you are found guilty of publishing defamation.  

[Dan O]

4 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

You're wrong though. What personal experience do you have

Nope but you have a good day 

[FruitPudding]

4 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

My point was to explain that you will serve time if you are found guilty of publishing defamation.  

Yeah, I know.

 

I think you were debating that point with someone else.

[eisfeld]

11 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

The Thai Law doesn't specify Immigration procedures while on bail. When you are charged, you need bail, and you will hand in your passport and lose your visa. It's quite clear that if you are charged, you will serve time if proven guilty of publishing defamation. Before you can be charged, the court will schedule a court mediation session. In my case, a senior judge was appointed. They try to settle cases by mediation, but it's at the descretion of the plaintiff to agree on a settlement.

I've been through court cases in Thailand (on the plaintiff side). I know well how they push for mediation. But all that still doesn't change that no, you will not be mandatorily imprisoned and deported. Plenty of defamation cases end with a simple fine. It really depends on the severity.

 

There is a big difference if joe-shmoe defames a government officer or influential person or if he just cursed at a random person on the fresh market.

Edited August 24, 2023 by eisfeld

[JensenZ]

2 minutes ago, Dan O said:

Nope but you have a good day 

Yes, thank you! My days are good now. My defamation cases started in 2015 and were resolved by mid-2017, so it was quite a relief to be done with it. 

 

 

[Dan O]

2 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

Yes, thank you! My days are good now. My defamation cases started in 2015 and were resolved by mid-2017, so it was quite a relief to be done with it. 

 

 

Haha yeah 

[JensenZ]

18 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

I've been through court cases in Thailand (on the plaintiff side). I know well how they push for mediation. But all that still doesn't change that no, you will not be mandatorily imprisoned and deported. Plenty of defamation cases end with a simple fine. It really depends on the severity.

 Publishing defamation is treated very seriously as a lot of harm can come from millions of people reading it. This is the crime I'm considering in this discussion.

 

When you start the court process, you are given the opportunity to take part in mediation. That's your choice offered by the judge at your first hearing. That's the choice most people take and the reason why few people will serve time. If you fail mediation and go to a full blown court hearing and you're charged and convicted, you will do time. You know this going in. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by JensenZ

[eisfeld]

1 minute ago, JensenZ said:

If you fail mediation and go to a full blown court hearing and you're charged, you will do time. You know this going in. 

This is where I disagree. First of charging someone does not mean they get convicted. And, like I mentioned even if convicted there is nothing about being guaranteed time in prison. If your lawyers told you so then probably to persuade you to go into mediation or they knew the case was severe enough that getting time is likely. Or maybe they knew something about that particular case, judge etc. pp. There are many many factors. For example if the person showed remorse and appologized. The list is long.

[JensenZ]

28 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

This is where I disagree. First of charging someone does not mean they get convicted. And, like I mentioned even if convicted there is nothing about being guaranteed time in prison. If your lawyers told you so then probably to persuade you to go into mediation or they knew the case was severe enough that getting time is likely. Or maybe they knew something about that particular case, judge etc. pp. There are many many factors. For example if the person showed remorse and appologized. The list is long.

I edited my comment: I meant to say: "if you are charged and convicted". When you are criminially charged (as would be the case here), you will seek bail.

 

Of course lawyers will recommend mediation. You'd be mad if you didn't. The judges are insistent upon it too. It would take quite an effort to forgo mediation.

Edited August 24, 2023 by JensenZ

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, JensenZ said:

It's a criminal offence. When foreigners are charged with a criminal offense, their passports are confiscated as part of the bail conditions and your visa is cancelled. I would probably listen to the advice of the lawyers I hired.

 

Section 328. Defamation by Publication

If the offence of defamation be committed by means of publication of a document, drawing, painting, cinematography film, picture or letters made visible by any means, gramophone record or another recording instruments, recording picture or letters, or by broadcasting or spreading picture, or by propagation by any other means, the offender shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding two years and fined not exceeding two hundred thousand Baht.

 

 

These lawyers?

Quote

(lost due to lawyer's negligence)

 

[bignok]

1 hour ago, FruitPudding said:

Farang = white person

 

Caucasian is a race, actually.

 

Japanese, Chinese, Indian, African etc etc are not called farang.

 

The word 'farang' comes from the word 'Francais' as the French were the first white people that came to Thailand.

Actually most people are mixed race not 1.

[Adumbration]

It is now growing very close to the time to bail on the dumpster fire that Thailand has become.  I am currently selling stuff in preparation.

[JensenZ]

25 minutes ago, stevenl said:

These lawyers?

 

 I changed lawyers. The 2nd ones were very good and won my case.

Edited August 24, 2023 by JensenZ

[Rimmer]

Off topic post contravening our Community Standards has been removed.    

[JensenZ]

9 hours ago, FruitPudding said:

Farang = white person

 

Caucasian is a race, actually.

 

Japanese, Chinese, Indian, African etc etc are not called farang.

 

The word 'farang' comes from the word 'Francais' as the French were the first white people that came to Thailand.

I wouldn't call "white person" a specific race. There are a wide assortment of "white" skin colours. Plenty of Asians have whiter skin that many Caucasian Westerners. The term "Farang" is quite vague and meaningless in a broader sense. We mustn't forget it's an informal term and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Edited August 24, 2023 by JensenZ