Thai media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul has been sentenced to two years in prison for slandering a government official during a live television broadcast on in November 2005.
A Bangkok criminal court on Thursday last sentenced Sondhi in relation to comments he made on November 25, 2005 on his popular Muang Thai Rai Supda television talk show which accused former Deputy Transport Minister Phumtham Vejjayachai of disloyalty to the monarch. During that particular broadcast he also linked Phumtham to the anti-royal website www.manusaya.com, which is hosted in Sweden and currently blocked in Thailand, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej is revered by Thais and considered above reproach.Thailand imposes possible jail terms of up to 20 years for offences towards the crown.
Phumtham, who was also deputy secretary-general of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra-led Thai Rak Thai party, said Sondhi had accused him of disrespecting Thailand’s monarchy when he joined the Communist Party of Thailand some 30 years ago, acording to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA). Phumtham had countered in a November 29, 2005 open letter that he was part of the student movements during the pro-democracy uprisings in 1973 and 1976, and was forced to flee from a military crackdown.
Soon after, Phumtham filed charges against Sondhi and his Thaiday Dot Com Co firm, which runs a news website and satellite-based ASTV television station, and had distributed audio-visual recordings of Sondhi’s talk show — alongside seven executives from Sondhi’s Manager Media Group and the company itself.
The court ruled that Sondhi could not substantiate his accusations against Phumtham and ordered his company to pay a fine of 200,000 baht (US$6,000) and to destroy all VCD and DVD copies of the show. Sondhi was released on 200,000 baht bail and told local media that he planned to appeal the verdict. The court also dropped the same charges against eight other Manager Media Group-related defendants in the case.
“The prison term handed down to Sondhi Limthongkul shows the pressing need for Thailand to abolish criminal defamation statutes and to revise its criminal code to better protect press freedom,” said CPJ Executive Editor Joel Simon.
The role of the king became an issue in last year’s standoff between an anti-government protest group led by Sondhi and Shinawatra, who was ousted on September 19 in a bloodless military coup.
Sondhi’s talk shows, highly critical of the government, that are broadcast over his ASTV satellite television station, were wildly popular in the run-up to last September’s military coup. In response, Thaksin and his political associates filed a string of over 50 defamation suits against Sondhi, including one civil suit in which the former premier demanded over US$12.5 million in monetary damages.
Sondhi told CPJ before the verdict that the ruling military junta last month cancelled a television news programme he produced for state-run Channel 11 after he criticised the interim government’s financial and economic policies on air.
Sondhi is an harsh critic of Shinawatra. The media owner criticised Thaksin, his party, and its members from the print and broadcast platforms he owned. He organised political rallies around his television talk show, in fact, which were instrumental in building up to the political crisis that saw Thaksin ousted in a military coup in September 2006.
