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THAI DEFAMATION LAW UNDER FIRE IN BBC REPORTER CASE
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THAILAND The lawsuit that got underway last Thursday in Phuket against the BBC reporter Jonathan Head has once again highlighted the problem with Thailand’s defamation laws, which lead to criminal and not civil cases. Mr Head was accused of defamation by Phuket lawyer Pratuan Thanarak, after the BBC reported that he had admitted to notarising a signature without the signatory being present. This was all connected to a property scam carried out against British national Ian Rance, who is a co-defendant with the BBC reporter,; Mr Rance’s wife Suda is currently serving a four year jail sentence for her part in the scam. Defamation, more commonly known as slander or libel, is where a person or organisation has seen their name or reputation sullied publically either in spoken or written form. In the majority of the world, this is pursued by the individual or organisation in a civil case, and if what was written or said was true, there is no case; in Thailand though, it is a criminal case, and the truth is little defence, with the main emphasis of the court placed on whether or not the words spoken or written have genuinely caused defamation. If found guilty, both defendants face up to two years in jail. In addition Mr Head faces charges under the Computer Crimes Act, which has a five-year maximum jail penalty. The case is scheduled to be dealt with in August. To put this situation in context, Human Rights Watch Asia Director Brad Adams said in a statement, “This is the kind of case that shows exactly why having criminal defamation laws is such a bad idea. The threat to lock someone away for what they said, or in this case, reported in the media is far too easily abused by those with time and money to engage in a game of legal blood sport by dragging people through the Thai court system,” and added, “Thailand should also move to immediately revise the Computer Crimes Act to bring it into compliance with the government’s obligations to protect freedom of expression under the United Nations Convention on Civil and Political Rights that Thailand has ratified.”