The Roi-Et Provincial Court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by an MP from the Klatham Party against a university student over a Facebook share questioning the MP’s qualifications. The Court concluded that scrutinising the qualifications of a politician or public figure is something that the public is entitled to do.

Ratchanee Polsue, a Klatham MP for Roi Et Constituency 3, filed a defamation lawsuit against a Burapha University student. The MP also sought 300,000 baht in damages.

The case stemmed from an incident on 6 January ahead of the 8 February general elections, when Ratchanee was an MP candidate for the Klatham Party. A local Facebook page posted content about lawsuits against Ratchanee and her husband, Ekkaphap Polsue. 

Both are well-known local politicians. Ekkaphap was banned from politics for 10 years after falsely accusing a rival of corruption during the Roi Et Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO) election campaign. Last year, Ratchanee was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption during her tenure as Roi Et PAO Chief in 2005. 

A Facebook page, CSI LA, widely known for exposing corruption, later reposted the content and asked the Klatham Party to examine the MP candidate’s qualifications. 

The university student then shared the post publicly without adding any message. 

According to the complaint, Ratchanee claimed that the content of the Facebook post shared by the student was distorted and misleading, given that the case against her is currently on appeal and has not yet reached a final verdict.

In addition, she said the court has yet to ban her from politics, asserting that she was eligible to run for the elections. 

Ratchanee claimed that sharing this post was not done in good faith but rather intended to lead voters to believe that she was corrupt and disqualified from being an MP candidate.

The plaintiff also claimed that after the defendant shared the post, questions were raised regarding her qualifications by both the general public and the Election Commission. 

The message was also disseminated to other Facebook pages, damaging her reputation.

During a preliminary hearing, Ratchanee’s lawyer admitted that Ratchanee was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption over educational media procurement, as stated in the post. 

The lawyer also argued that any concerns should have been directed to the Election Commission rather than raised on a social media platform.

Another plaintiff witness testified that after reading the post, he had a negative feeling toward Ratchanee, and he decided to vote for another candidate instead. 

During cross-examination, the plaintiff witness admitted that the public has the right to scrutinise politicians who rely on taxpayer money, and he was also aware of the fact that the MP had been sentenced to six years in prison.

On Tuesday (16 June), the Court ruled to dismiss the case on the grounds that the general public is entitled to scrutinise the qualifications of politicians and public figures.

Apart from this case, the lawyer revealed that Ratchanee has also filed similar defamation lawsuits against at least four citizens over Facebook shares. 

A growing number of defamation lawsuits have recently been filed by influential politicians against ordinary people or even politicians from rival parties.

Klatham Party leader Thammanat Prompao has also filed defamation lawsuits with Phayao Provincial Court against dozens of citizens for Facebook comments questioning his alleged involvement in a scam network.