16 hours ago, darksidedog said:

This is huge. If it goes through, immediate beneficiaries would be Andy Hall, Andrew Drummond and the BBcs Jonathan Head who would all have the spurious charges against them withdrawn. Criminals could no longer bring to court and often put in jail, those who reveal their illegal behaviour.

The legislation has been horribly abused. It is a shame it has taken this long for the powers that be, to recognise it, but this is seriously good news.

Slowly slowly, don't knock it. 

Just now, Reigntax said:

There is nothing wrong with defamation in general where a person has suffered loss by false accusation. Thailands problem is that by making it a criminal offense and not civil, is the burden of coost to prosecute is born by the country and not those filing the complaint.

 

Bring defamation under civil law and when subject to personal cost and burden of proof, the situation and number of cases will be almost zero, if not a handfull each year where a real claim is justified.

 

The only issue I have with that, is that it effectively means that poor people, who can't afford lawyers and court fees, have no recourse when defamed.

The whole idea of the law is that it should be equally available to all.

Don't get me wrong, I feel that most of Thai legislation is fundamentally flawed, but you can't take law out of reach based upon money.

20 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

The only issue I have with that, is that it effectively means that poor people, who can't afford lawyers and court fees, have no recourse when defamed.

The whole idea of the law is that it should be equally available to all.

Don't get me wrong, I feel that most of Thai legislation is fundamentally flawed, but you can't take law out of reach based upon money.

 

If a poor person has a legitimate case or that deemed to have a reasonable chance of sucess they will have no problem finding legal representation as long as the justice system is independent and predictable. Unfortunately, at present, the justice system fails to meet either of these requirements.

On 5/23/2017 at 9:42 PM, billd766 said:

 

Believe it IF/WHEN it happens.

 

Try not to celebrate too prematurely.

It'll happen for sure. Not because the government is smart or somehow has gained wisdom, but because 50K cases -- with more and more cases continually being filed --   has finally become so burdensome to the bureaucracy that the government literally can no longer handle the cases. 

Online defamation defendants wait on court action

By Sasiwan Mokkhasen, Staff Reporter

 

  

Andy Hall at the Bangkok South Criminal Court in August 2015. Photo: Andy Hall / Facebook

 

BANGKOK — A defendant in a defamation case was surprised to learn Wednesday that charges and convictions brought under the Computer Crime Act may be vacated, while a legal reform advocate said the improvements won’t end suppression of free speech.

 

One defendant said she did not know the revised law could no longer be misused to prosecute online defamation, and those critical of its abuse said conditions for free expression were unlikely to improve so long as defamation remained a criminal offense.

 

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crimecourtscalamity/courts/2017/05/24/online-defamation-defendants-wait-court-action/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2017-05-25

Wow! A sudden move in the right direction. And unexpected - especially for the government, no doubt.

5 hours ago, webfact said:

conditions for free expression were unlikely to improve so long as defamation remained a criminal offense.

Defamation is an offence. It's Thailand's interpretation of it that has bemused, and might or might not continue to bemuse, those who rightly see criticism in a variety of areas, commercial and government, of shoddy acts, goods, services, et al, as not only their right but their obligation. 

No, say it ain't so! How can they throw away being  "The HUB of Defamation Law Suits!" Are they mad?

Wednesday has come and gone, did this happen or not ?

Anyone seen my toilet paper?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> forget that just found it the CCA17 paperwork