BBC journalist on trial for Thailand crime reporting

[bannork]

55 minutes ago, DonaldBattles said:

Have you ever met a person here that would admit and accept the truth?

Not often on Thai Visa.

[soalbundy]

57 minutes ago, DonaldBattles said:

Have you ever met a person here that would admit and accept the truth?

There are always alternate truths

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

Any examples of "Alternate Truths" you care to share? 

[wwest5829]

19 hours ago, onthesoi said:

Well, let me correct you, that is wrong, see examples already given.

Well, you have had your run around the block, feel better? You certainly have established I wasted my time, as I do now, to say my post was one without malice, intended to educate. You chose to dismiss. Sorry to have bothered you. Might want to look at a well meaning person's background before replying with a dismissal. After decades of study and teaching, I have a bit of knowledge of western jurisprudence. Not that I cannot be wrong but, in this case, .... well, there seems to be those who do not wish to learn.

[Sydebolle]

It shows you only, once more again, in what kind of medieval banana republic certain countries write and apply law. And, once they are done with this story they might look into Koh Tao issues, the Red Bull's grandson mishap and many, many, many other "irregularities". 

This time though my suggestion is to play it absolutely by the book; the BBC is arguably the most viewed news network and they have at least ten times more regular viewers than Thailand has citizen - the world is watching you here. 

Possibly also necessary to restructure the law and put certain stuff into the "criminal" cabinet while taking other items off that list. 

Pathetic! 

[retarius]

Good decision.

[soalbundy]

21 minutes ago, Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere said:

Any examples of "Alternate Truths" you care to share? 

you hansum man, I luv you too much, you haf good heart, mama sick need money for doctor

[soalbundy]

I wonder if this will keep onthesoi quiet

[bristolgeoff]

Quote

 

i thought nothing would happen in court.maybe a order to leave the country asap.but not the case going to court withdrawn

[Bangkok Barry]

1 hour ago, DonaldBattles said:

Have you ever met a person here that would admit and accept the truth?

 

In 25 years here, no. I remember a wonderful story of a chap who regularly caught a particular long-distance bus. One day he went to buy his ticket and the girl said there was no such bus at that time. He went and found someone, perhaps at information, who came and assured the girl there was indeed such a bus, but she still point blank refused to sell him a ticket as that would have meant admitting she was wrong. He had to catch a later bus.

[LannaGuy]

28 minutes ago, Psimbo said:

Do keep up- this was published nearly 12 hours ago!

Wow that's GREAT news so please, please, please Jonathan counter-sue for defamation.

[HHTel]

45 minutes ago, wwest5829 said:

After decades of study and teaching,

Shame you didn't channel your efforts into English Language!

[Old Croc]

5 hours ago, cyberfarang said:

Same old story, another Farlang fleeced by his ever loving Thai wife who is different from all the rest.

 

I`ve been with living with my Thai girlfriend in Thailand for many years. Would I officially marry her and buy land and property in her name? Not in a million years. It`s well known how flimsy the laws are in Thailand, so why would two allegedly professional business men risk investing thousands and thousands of pounds in Thailand mainly on trust and with all the restrictions that go with it? 

 

Sorry; but I have little sympathy for these guys, they really should have placed more thought into it and know better.

Have you actually read the facts of the case?

This guy didn't put the properties in the wife's name, but used the limited company method to buy and keep control of his assets.  The crimes committed against him involved the illegal transfer of the titles into the wife's name assisted by the plaintive and a number of unnamed criminal elements. (use your imagination as to their professions) 

 

From the OP article:

Pratuan admitted on tape to certifying Rance's signature without him being present, a move which helped the British retiree's then wife transfer his properties out of his name.

She was later convicted and jailed for the scam.

 

Vent about people who use this method to hold property in Thailand if you must, but at least get your facts right.

 

 

[topt]

17 minutes ago, bristolgeoff said:

i thought nothing would happen in court.maybe a order to leave the country asap.but not the case going to court withdrawn

 

12 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

Wow that's GREAT news so please, please, please Jonathan counter-sue for defamation.

Has anybody actually read the full BBC link that was posted -

Quote

"The plaintiff has withdrawn his case against BBC journalist Jonathan Head, but as the trial of his co-defendant is continuing, we cannot comment further at present," a BBC statement said.

 

[LannaGuy]

Just now, topt said:

 

Has anybody actually read the full BBC link that was posted -

 

 

Just now, topt said:

 

Has anybody actually read the full BBC link that was posted -

 

Can still counter-sue here. He lost his passport and was greatly inconvenienced with a vexatious law suit. 

[hansnl]

9 minutes ago, HHTel said:

Shame you didn't channel your efforts into English Language!

You did, presumably, too much.

And as a result now tend to forget many readers hail from non- English speaking countries.

And how many languages are you proficient in?

 

 

 

 

[Old Croc]

8 minutes ago, Old Croc said:

Have you actually read the facts of the case?

This guy didn't put the properties in the wife's name, but used the limited company method to buy and keep control of his assets.  The crimes committed against him involved the illegal transfer of the titles into the wife's name assisted by the plaintive and a number of unnamed criminal elements. (use your imagination as to their professions) 

 

From the OP article:

 

 

 

Vent about people who use this method to hold property in Thailand if you must, but at least get your facts right.

 

 

Just to correct myself, Rance had multiple properties including a restaurant. Apparently some were in  his wife's name. The infractions involved the assets in a company name.

Apologies for getting it wrong.

[HHTel]

8 minutes ago, hansnl said:

You did, presumably, too much.

And as a result now tend to forget many readers hail from non- English speaking countries.

And how many languages are you proficient in?

 

 

 

 

Four but the comment was supposed to be light-hearted. I'm sorry if it came across as heavy-handed.

[Doug F]

I and many potential future investors in retirement homes will be watching this closely.  If Thailand is so corrupt that someone trying to alert people of a potential problem is the one who is jailed, then maybe I should consider some other country in southeast asia to retire in.

 

It sounds like the lawyer is the real crook.

[curlylekan]

I think this is a good ending to a bad start and I think we see here that Thailand is starting to head in the right direction in general  say its because of a world wide news agency like the BBC, but if this happened in China, I don't think we'd see the same results. But if the minister wonders why journalists don't report on his work, this is a great example, dig too deep you could face financial charges and jail time, but I have a lot of faith from the past few years that the country and the government is progressing in a positive, albeit weirdly, democratic way. 

[cumgranosalus]

A farcical situation....but they have only dropped charges against one of them?

 

This is turning into a very complex "Kreng Jai" situation!

[wwest5829]

40 minutes ago, HHTel said:

Shame you didn't channel your efforts into English Language!

Your area of expertise in English language usage is...?

 

Edited August 24, 2017 by wwest5829

[LannaGuy]

3 minutes ago, curlylekan said:

I think this is a good ending to a bad start and I think we see here that Thailand is starting to head in the right direction in general  say its because of a world wide news agency like the BBC, but if this happened in China, I don't think we'd see the same results. But if the minister wonders why journalists don't report on his work, this is a great example, dig too deep you could face financial charges and jail time, but I have a lot of faith from the past few years that the country and the government is progressing in a positive, albeit weirdly, democratic way. 

government is progressing in a positive, albeit weirdly, democratic way

 

what???

[Bangkok Barry]

7 minutes ago, curlylekan said:

I think this is a good ending to a bad start and I think we see here that Thailand is starting to head in the right direction in general  say its because of a world wide news agency like the BBC, but if this happened in China, I don't think we'd see the same results. But if the minister wonders why journalists don't report on his work, this is a great example, dig too deep you could face financial charges and jail time, but I have a lot of faith from the past few years that the country and the government is progressing in a positive, albeit weirdly, democratic way. 

 

It might be a good ending, but it has nothing at all to do with Thailand heading in the right direction. The law remains the same - it is just that for a reason we have not and will not be told the accuser decided to withdraw the case. A cynic might say that he found his pockets were not deep enough to persuade the court to his point of view against such an opponent as the BBC, but that kind of conjecture is not allowed and anyway is unfounded in fact.

[saminoz]

37 minutes ago, hansnl said:

You did, presumably, too much.

And as a result now tend to forget many readers hail from non- English speaking countries.

And how many languages are you proficient in?

 

 

 

 

The English language is certainly not one of them!

[sweatalot]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

UPDATE:

Thailand charges dropped against BBC reporter

Charges have been withdrawn against a BBC journalist in a criminal defamation case in Thailand.

 

Don't be fooled. This is not because of a wise decision by the judge or the coroner

but:

"The plaintiff has withdrawn his case against BBC journalist Jonathan Head"

[LannaGuy]

21 minutes ago, sweatalot said:

Don't be fooled. This is not because of a wise decision by the judge or the coroner

but:

"The plaintiff has withdrawn his case against BBC journalist Jonathan Head"

 

Sue him for vexatious suit.  Come on  BBC   'Make Suing Great Again'

[Mansell]

Nice to see that somebody with a brain stepped back and took a deep breath.

[KittenKong]

This case would have been widely reported and commented on in media around the world, and during such commentary many other details of similarly corrupt goings-on might have been discussed in some depth.

 

Therefore I find it interesting that the Sky News feed to Thailand was turned off just a couple of days before this case started.

[Bangkok Barry]

19 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

This case would have been widely reported and commented on in media around the world, and during such commentary many other details of similarly corrupt goings-on might have been discussed in some depth.

 

Therefore I find it interesting that the Sky News feed to Thailand was turned off just a couple of days before this case started.

 

It has been turned off in other countries too. A friend in Dubai told me it's gone from there too. Strange how these people spend all that time, money and effort producing the news and then prevent people from seeing it even though it was offered free on YouTube. We live in a strange world,