I f the charges are not dropped and the journalists are convicted, they could face up to two years’ imprisonment on the criminal defamation charges and five years in prison for breaching the controversial Computer Crimes Act, as well as a fine of up to 100,000 baht ($3,037). Morison recently lodged an appeal with Phuket’s provincial Governor Maitree Intrusud seeking to persuade the navy to withdraw the suit. Morison and Sidasathian denied both charges, but police are obliged to proceed, and the two journalists could face court as early as this month. “ The case clearly has ramifications for every media outlet that carries a story from any news agency.” We are puzzled as to why the Phuketwan is being singled out when scores of outlets around the world had the opportunity to republish the Reuters report, ” Morison told Al Jazeera. “We have been sued over the paragraph, but it was repeated straight from the Reuters special report. Morison said the legal action against him and his colleague was based on an allegation that navy officials earned “about 2,000 baht per Rohingya for spotting a boat or turning a blind eye”, which was taken from a Reuters article that Phuketwan simply republished.
This caused the navy to file a suit against Phuketwan on December 16. Two journalists face jail terms following the publication of a report that allegedly defamed the Royal Thai Navy Ī story published on the website on July 17 headlined “Thai Military Profiting from Trade in Boatpeople, Says Special Report” cited an investigation by Reuters news agency claiming members of the navy worked “systematically with smugglers to profit from the surge in fleeing Rohingya”. Thai navy officials refused an interview request for this story.įor many years, Myanmar’s stateless Muslim Rohingya minority have fled via Thailand to the mostly Muslim countries of Malaysia and Indonesia. “But if we go to jail, our coverage of the Rohingya boat people and their treatment by traffickers in Thailand will cease for as long as we are in prison.
Human muzzle prison free#
“The problem for us is that we are willing to go to jail to stand against a bad law and to uphold the principle that the media should be free and unfettered, particularly when reporting the activities of the military,” said Morison, who also freelances for international media including The Sydney Morning Herald, South China Morning Post and CNN. Morison, who has lived in Thailand for 11 years, said at the heart of the issue is the plight of the Rohingya, thousands of whom flee ethnic violence in neighbouring Myanmar each year. Let the court find out the truth and take the decision in the case.” Several international media and human rightsgroups have criticised the navy’s action, and urged Thai authorities to drop the lawsuit.īut the commander of the naval authority said it would not withdraw it. “False information” about the RTN published by Phuketwan damaged the image of Thailand and caused the navy to take legal action, Vice Admiral Tharathorn Khajitsuwan told Thailand’s Channel 3 TV. “It’s an outrageous attempt to muzzle the media.”
Human muzzle prison crack#
The navy is using a sledgehammer to crack a little walnut,” said Morison, 66. “Chutima and I have been charged under two of the most severe and contentious laws in the country and we face seven years in jail. The lawsuit also alleged the two violated the country’s Computer Crimes Act, which bars the circulation of information on the Internet deemed to threaten national security or spread panic. After the Thai navy sued a news website in Thailand over the publication of a story claiming it helped traffick Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya refugees, its editor says he is prepared to go to jail to defend what he called an attack on media freedom.Ī Royal Thai Navy (RTN) official accused Alan Morison, the Australian editor of the Phuket-based English-language website Phuketwanand his Thai reporter colleague Chutima Sidasathian of criminal defamation.
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