We know fear. We felt it in 2009 when we discovered that boatloads of would-be refugees were being captured, kept on a deserted island, and then pushed back out to sea in secret from Thailand by the military.
We feared what might happen to our small online news outlet in Phuket. We knew we had uncovered a significant international story, a story that all of Thailand and the world needed to know.
We feared the consequences, so we contacted a larger news outlet, the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, and at almost the same time that Phuketwan published the story, so did the Post in Hong Kong. That story changed the world just a little, for the better.
We knew fear again a few years later when in 2013, the Royal Thai Navy, which played no part in the pushbacks, sued us for criminal defamation and computer crimes over a Reuters report on human trafficking that later helped earn the news agency a Pulitzer Prize.
Despite our fears, we had been constantly reporting on the corrupt trade of human trafficking. We were told to apologize, to accept a guilty verdict when we knew we had done nothing wrong.
We fought, we were put on trial and surprisingly, we won. We did that because we knew that in reporting on human trafficking, we were making Thailand a less corrupt country, a better place for everyone.
[The colonel implicated in our first exclusive reports on the ”pushbacks,” Manat Kongpan, was promoted. Years later, he was eventually found guilty of human trafficking. He died in jail.]
Today, 10 years on from being charged with criminal defamation for the first time, reporter-turned-advocate Chutima Sidasathian faces seven fresh charges of criminal defamation. That could bring her a maximum of 14 years in jail.
Often these days, when walking on the foreshore, she wears a cap that says: ”Be Fearless.” She remains unafraid.
Despite the seven charges against her, brought by a single individual, a rural official, over social media reports, she continues to post regularly on Facebook
She keeps posting to inform and educate the villagers who became victims of a shocking community banking scam, a scandal that is blamed for three suicides and that traumatized scores of impoverished farming families.
Instead of being helped by the well-intended government loans, a substantial proportion of the funds were diverted into personal bank accounts.
Yet the large bank involved insisted that the villagers had to repay all the stolen money, plus interest.
After Chutima’s revelations on Facebook, the bank conducted its own internal investigation. While the bank says little publicly about the scandal, it is now pursuing a handful of individuals for the missing money.
The surprise to us as journalists is that no charges have been made by any law enforcement agency. We attribute this, along with the lack of media coverage, to fear.
Thailand’s criminal defamation laws are such bad laws that any law enforcement officer who pursues the culprits in the scam could be charged. So might any brave reporter.
Only one organization among many organizations that have been made aware of this scandal has spoken out.
To its great credit, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand has declared that its investigation shows Chutima to be a human rights defender, and the case against her to be a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) case.
SLAPP cases are a menace to free speech around the world – and most easily carried out in countries that still have criminal defamation laws.
We know the details of just two criminal defamation cases, because of our involvement. But we can say with certainty that many of the thousands of cases brought under these bad laws will have been brought to silence journalists, advocates and human rights defenders who have only the best interests of Thailand at heart.
Chutima faces trial over the first three Facebook posts on February 6-8, with more trials to come. The local official has continued to lay charges against her. He has also used the law to accuse one local woman of criminal defamation.
Under Thai law, it is his right to lay charges as often as he wishes. Police say they pursue criminal defamation cases because it is ”their duty.”
The charges are plainly intended to instill fear. When we were charged with criminal defamation a decade ago, we hoped that in fighting, we would win. We would see these laws repealed, and Thailand changed for the better.
Ten years on, we hope this solo campaign of community advocacy by Chutima ends a banking scandal of national significance, brings an end to these bad laws and makes Thailand a fairer, more equitable democracy. Be fearless.