Press briefing notes on Thailand / journalists

We welcome today's decision by the Phuket Provincial Court to acquit two journalists of criminal defamation and of breaching the Computer Crimes Act. Editor Alan Morison and reporter Chutima Sidasathian were prosecuted in relation to an article published in Phuketwan, a small English-language newspaper based in Phuket, Thailand, that cites an investigative report by Reuters on the smuggling of Rohingya asylum seekers, allegedly with the support or involvement of security forces from both sides of the border.

We urge the Thai Government to consider decriminalizing defamation and to drop charges against all human rights defenders and journalists who are in a similar situation, facing charges of criminal defamation for just exercising their rights to freedom of expression and opinion. Criminal prosecution for defamation has a chilling effect on freedom of the press, and international standards are clear that imprisonment is never an appropriate penalty for defamation.

ENDS