Thai navy sues Phuketwan.com website over Rohingya report: editor

[IrishIvan]

Wasn't the Phuketwan website sold recently?

its still for sale 6 million baht. If you are interested just PM me

[mikemac]

very different to run of the mill criminal/illegal activities. If it's attempted supression of reporting relating to human rights abuses it's likely the Oz government would endeavour to assist via diplomatic means

You obviously havent seen the current Australian foreign minister in action. The only difference between her and a rottweiler is lipstick

"You can put lipstick on a rottweiller but you still got a Liberal foreign minister"

[Briggsy]

One effect of this accusation is that it shuts down the story. Jouralists are less likely to investigate and write stories and editors are far less likely to publish stories linked to the trafficking and abuse of Rohingyas if they know it will bankrupt both them and the publication they work for and land them in an appalling Thai prison.

Thailand is a Western ally. Thailand is not Syria or Iran or Russia. Thus publications covering very serious government human rights abuses in Thailand will not get much official help from Western governments.

[simple1]

One effect of this accusation is that it shuts down the story. Jouralists are less likely to investigate and write stories and editors are far less likely to publish stories linked to the trafficking and abuse of Rohingyas if they know it will bankrupt both them and the publication they work for and land them in an appalling Thai prison.

Thailand is a Western ally. Thailand is not Syria or Iran or Russia. Thus publications covering very serious government human rights abuses in Thailand will not get much official help from Western governments.

Western governments have made representations at the diplomatic level for their nationals convicted of lese majesty offences under Thai law. However you have made a pertinent observation as there are double standards. It is not widely known that with the possible Thai Tier 3 ranking in 2014 by the US State Department can be waived if:

"all or part of the TVPA’s sanctions can be waived if the President determines that the provision of such assistance to the government would promote the purposes of the statute or is otherwise in the United States’ national interest"

Edited December 22, 2013 by simple1

[MK1]

"Editor Alan Morison said he and his colleague Chutima Sidasathian were on Wednesday presented with the charges of "bringing the navy into disrepute" as well as an offence under the Computer Crimes Act, which carries a more severe penalty."

Does any body have any information about this Computer Crimes Act?

I posted a link in one of my pinned topics - Computer Crime Act

One issue with it is there are places that are 'open to interpretation'.

Indeed, as we also try to interpret the unofficial translation of the ‘Computer Crimes Act’ in English language, it is also baffling without official translated definitions. You also have to wonder what resources within Royal Thai Navy relied upon to translate the alleged defaming story from English to Thai language. I’m almost certain the Navy’s linguist personnel who translated the alleged defaming story that their first spoken first language was more than likely not English.

As discussed with a respected undisclosed source, perhaps most likely, as many Thais do, within most government and private organizations. to avoid excessive human resource costs, they tend to use Google translate, which is a totally unreliable translation tool. To effectively translate anything, Cross–language-technology translated by qualified people in the field is critical to avoid any miss-understanding with any friend or foe.

Therefore, it is quite possible these allegations have arisen as result of ‘Lost in Translation’ as the cause and is perhaps on both sides a total miss-understanding in so far as can be reasonable interpreted.

Edited December 22, 2013 by MK1