A British BBC journalist yesterday appeared in a Thai court for the start of a criminal defamation trial brought by a lawyer who featured in an investigation about foreigners being scammed out of their retirement homes.
BBC Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head faces up to five years in jail at the private prosecution on Phuket.
Rights groups have said the case exposes how Thailand’s broad defamation and computer crime laws scupper investigative journalism and make it difficult to uncover wrongdoing in an endemically corrupt country.
CORRUPTION
The prosecution was sparked by a 2015 report by Head detailing how two foreign retirees had properties in Phuket stolen from them by a network of criminals and corrupt officials.
One of the victims, British national Ian Rance, is a joint defendant in the prosecution. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The man bringing the prosecution is local lawyer Pratuan Thanarak, who featured in the BBC’s report looking at how Rance lost US$1.2 million worth of properties.
According to the report, 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.
A copy of Pratuan’s complaint seen by reporters alleges that the BBC’s report caused him to be “defamed, insulted or hated.”
It does not detail whether he notarized the signature without Rance being present.
Pratuan declined to speak about the case on the way into court, warning gathered photographers that he would file a lawsuit against anyone who published images of him.
Neither Head nor Rance spoke to reporters on their way into the Phuket court yesterday.
BBC SUPPORT
In a previous statement the BBC has said it “stands by its journalism” and that it intends to “clear the name of our correspondent.”
Rance and Head face one charge of criminal defamation, which carries up to two years in jail.
Head faces an additional charge under Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act, a broadly worded law that forbids uploading “false data” online and carries a five-year maximum jail penalty.
Unlike most countries where defamation is a civil crime, in Thailand it is a criminal offence. Private citizens can also launch their own prosecutions and they are not forced to pay costs if they lose. Similar cases have been brought in recent years.
Local news site Phuketwan closed down in 2015 after running out of money in its successful bid to defeat a suit brought by Thailand’s navy.
Andrew Drummond, a British crime reporter, left the country the same year because of multiple cases brought by those he exposed as did British labor rights campaigner Andy Hall last year.
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