Fired Bangkok Post Editor Sues To Get Job Back

[george]

Fired Bangkok Post editor sues to get job back

Fired 'Bangkok Post' editor says cousin of top TRT figure fed him information; sues for Bt13m damages and return of job, The Nation reports.

BANGKOK: -- A former Bangkok Post news editor on December 20 named a cousin of a government figure as the anonymous source who had told him in August about dangerous cracks in the runways at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Sermsuk Kasitipradit also filed a lawsuit with the Labour Court against Post Publishing Plc, demanding Bt13 million in compensation for sacking him unfairly following the publication of his front-page article about the alleged fractured tarmac.

In his lawsuit, Sermsuk identified Sawang Virameteekul, a cousin of Virachai Virameteekul, a Thai Rak Thai Party co-founder and the vice minister for foreign affairs, as his source for the report, which led to his firing from the English-language newspaper.

For the dismissal of Sermsuk, the company gave the reason that he failed to reveal the [identity of the] source [to the company] and failed to convince his source to confirm the information. In fact, Sermsuk had already revealed to the newspaper's in-house investigating committee that he had received information from Sawang Virameteekul, said Nakhon Chompoochart, Sermsuk's lawyer.

Sermsuk also told the committee that General Boonserm Kaewprasert, a former adviser to the Royal Thai Army, had introduced Sawang to him, the lawyer said.

These details were also described in the writ, he said.

Sermsuk's termination violated his employment contract because Sermsuk did not do anything wrong, the lawyer said.

He did his job as usual. The news report, to be published or not, was an editorial judgement, Nakhon said, adding that Sermsuk also named Post Publishing's deputy chief executive David Armstrong as the second defendant.

Armstrong signed the dismissal letter without the investigating committee's approval, the lawyer said.

Sermsuk also demanded the company reinstate him at work.

Bangkok Post's front page story on August 8 quoted a source as saying that US aviation experts brought in by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had called for the reconstruction of both landing strips because of severe gaps at touchdown points.

Airports of Thailand and New Bangkok International Airport lodged libel suits against the Post and other parties demanding damages and measures to repair the country's and the new airport's reputations. The lawsuits were filed even though the newspaper published an unqualified retraction the following day.

The airport agencies are demanding the co-defendants announce a summary of the verdict in domestic and foreign newspapers and on television for 15 days.

They demand that the verdict be published in a full-page advertisement in a top-selling newspaper in each country and aired on global television networks, such as CNBC, CCTV and BBC, for one hour per day.

--tmc.net 2006-01-10

[astral]

Good luck to him!!

[Siripon]

I've heard that Phil McDonald is suing The Nation for several million for the removal of his column many months ago!