Defiant editor Alan Morison to return to face Thai navy defamation case
Version 0 of 1. An Australian journalist who is facing a defamation charge from the Thai navy and the possibility of a jail term will return to the country from Australia unrepentant for stories alleging abuse of Rohingyan asylum seekers by Thai authorities. “We must defend this,” Alan Morison told Guardian Australia this week. “If bullies in uniform can silence reporters, then you don’t have a democracy.” Morison, a former journalist with Fairfax and News Ltd newspapers in Australia, has run the small Phuketwan news website on the southern Thai island of Phuket for seven years. As well as being one of the country’s most popular holiday destinations, the western coast of southern Thailand is the site of a huge human trafficking route of Rohingyan asylum seekers fleeing Burma, bound mainly for Malaysia. About 53,000 asylum seekers travelled the route last year alone, according to the UN. In 2009, Phuketwan broke the story of the Thai government’s policy of “push-backs”, where asylum boats were forced back to sea, a story that ultimately led to a change in government policy. Related: Thai pursuit of Alan Morison case 'heavy handed', says rights group But in 2013 a single, 41-word paragraph in a story alleging the violent persecution of Burma’s Rohingya Muslim minority aroused the opprobrium of the Royal Thai Navy. The paragraph was not written by Morison or his staff member, Chutima Sidasathian, who has also been charged with defamation. Instead, it was reproduced from – and credited to – a Pulitzer-prize winning investigation conducted by the Reuters news agency. The Thai navy has not pursued Reuters legally, but ruled that Phuketwan’s reproduction of the paragraph was “false and wrong” and that “the reputation of the Royal Thai Navy was damaged and made people look down on the navy”. Morison’s passport was seized and Thai authorities initially refused to allow him to return home to Australia to see his 91-year-old father, who is unwell. Morison was granted leave to return home over Christmas and the new year, and is staying in Melbourne. He must return his passport to Thai authorities by 8 February. His trial is set for July, but Morison is hopeful, and growing more confident, that a deal can be brokered before then. Ninety-six percent of defamation cases that go to trial in Thailand lead to convictions, one of the highest rates in the world. The maximum penalty for defamation is seven years in jail. “We are prepared, if it comes to that, for the case to go to trial,” Morison said. “We want to be exonerated. We have to put our faith in the Thai justice system.” The Phuketwan case has attracted significant international interest, and been condemned by the UN, Human Rights Watch, and by Reuters, the original author of the story. Related: Thailand's military junta forces cancellation of press freedom conference The US state department is currently concluding its annual report into people trafficking. The Phuketwan case has attracted its criticism before, and a continued prosecution could harm Thailand’s trafficking rating and even lead to sanctions, which could give Thai authorities political motivation to quietly resolve the case. Morison maintained he would not apologise, nor back down from his reporting of Rohingyan asylum issues. “I don’t see how we can apologise for something we haven’t done. This is just a very unfortunate, misguided attempt by someone with a vendetta against Phuketwan to silence us.” “We have to run our defence as assiduously as possible, not only for ourselves, but for the freedom of the media in Thailand. This is for all the other journalists in Thailand, and it is for the people on those boats that we have reported about, their stories need to be told, not covered up.” |