Two Phuket-based journalists facing a law suit from the Thai Navy over a story they wrote about the trafficking of Rohingya migrants have put in a plea to the Thai Prime Minister’s Office for the case to be dropped, according to Phuketwan on January 23.
24 January 2015 | Written by Mizzima | Published in Regional
Two Phuket-based journalists facing a law suit from the Thai Navy over a story they wrote about the trafficking of Rohingya migrants have put in a plea to the Thai Prime Minister’s Office for the case to be dropped, according to Phuketwan on January 23.
Reporter Ms Chutima Sidasathian, together with human rights lawyers, reportedly delivered a letter to the Thai Prime Minister on January 23 while on a visit to meet with government officials and interested parties in Bangkok.
She and her Australian colleague Mr Alan Morison face possible long jail terms under a suit for criminal defamation and a Computer Crimes Act charge, according to Phuketwan, the magazine they work for.
The legal action concerns a story they wrote about the illegal trafficking of Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar. It specifically focuses on one paragraph republished word for word from a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by Reuters news agency journalists. Reuters is not being charged.
The legal action by the Thai Navy – initiated before the military takeover of Thailand in May last year – has been strongly criticised by human rights bodies and UN and European Union authorities, as well as the US authorities, who featured it in the US State Department’s 2014 Trafficking in Persons report that lowered Thailand to Tier 3, the lowest level.
Phuketwan has won international praise for its seven-year reporting of the Rohingya exodus from Myanmar and particularly the treatment of boatpeople in Thailand.
”The case is damaging for Phuketwan, for the Royal Thai Navy and for Thailand. We did nothing to deserve this heavy-handed treatment. We would welcome any move to exonerate us,” Ms Chutima said.
Thailand has come in for criticism over its failure to effectively tackle the trafficking of Rohingya from Myanmar through Thailand to a third country, typically Malaysia.