<p>ARTICLE 19 calls for an end to the use of defamation law against crtics of the Prime Minister and for the Thai government to decriminalise defamation.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The criminal court has acquitted a Myanmar ex-employee and a human rights advocate sued for defamation by Thammakaset, a Lop-buri based chicken farm company, over a video interview about bad working conditions. The verdict found the video was fair comment.</p>

<p>Today (27 April), the ICJ and Lawyers&rsquo; Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) jointly submitted a legal brief (amicus curiae) to the Court of Appeal in criminal defamation proceeding against Thai journalist Suchanee Cloitre.</p>

<p>A group of UN experts&nbsp;have condemned the continued misuse of judicial processes by Thai poultry producer Thammakaset to harass and silence human rights defenders who have spoken out against its abusive and exploitative labour practices.</p>

<div> <div>The courts have dismissed defamation charges against a controversial motivational speaker who in a talk last year accused Isaan people of being disloyal to the late King Bhumibol.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>November last year, Thai social media was flooded with video clips of motivational speaker Orapim ‘Best’ Raksapon. She was reportedly subsidised by the Royal Thai Army to give lectures on the late King Bhumibol across the country. </div></div>

<p>A respected academic has been summoned by the police to hear charges filed against him in February by the national police chief for allegedly defaming the police.</p> <p>On 6 July 2017, Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, Dean of the College of Social Innovation of Rangsit University, was summoned to Lumpini Police Station in Bangkok to hear charges arising from a public forum in January about police reform.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A well-known human rights commissioner has lodged a complaint against online news outlets over fake news about her comments on a karaoke hostess accused of committing a gruesome murder.</p> <p dir="ltr">On 7 June 2017, Angkhana Neelapaijit, a National Human Rights Commissioner, filed a complaint to the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) against online media sites which allegedly violated her rights.</p>

<div> <div>An environmentalist has been given a one-year suspended jail term because of a Facebook post criticising a coal ash project.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> </div> <div>On Thursday, 17 March 2016, Nakhon Si Thammarat Provincial Court sentenced Kumpol Jittanang, a marine environmentalist and coordinator of the Disaster Management Centre, Nakhon Si Thammarat, to one year in jail after finding him guilty of defaming an academic. The court also fined him 40,000 baht, iLaw <a href="http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/case/705#progress_of_case">reported</a>. </div>

<div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Phuket police have issued summonses for Reuters and two Reuters reporters, one of whom is a member of the team which won Pulitzer, to hear charges with respect to a story which accused the Thai Navy of involvement in human trafficking of ethnic Rohingya refugees. The content was similar to that which was previously used to bring charges against Phuketwan journalists, according to Phuketwan.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> </div> <div> </div>

<div>The Royal Navy army sued two journalists from Phuketwan website after they reported navy’s involvement in trafficking the Rohingyas in Southern Thailand. </div>