Two journalists were charged Thursday with defaming the Thai navy in a piece they wrote on the smuggling of Rohingya Muslims, which was based on an extract from a Pulitzer prize-winning investigative report.
Australian national Alan Morison and Thai co-writer Chutima Sidasathien could face five to seven years in jail, a fine of 100,000 Baht (2,240 euros), or both if convicted of defamation under the country’s 2007 Computer Crime Act.
Morison, the editor of the Southern Thai news English-language Phuketwan website, said after the judgement “We have been sold down the river.”
Prior to Thursday’s Phuket criminal court decision, several human rights organizations had warned that charging the two journalists would infringe freedom of the press regulation.
"The trial of these two journalists is unjustified and constitutes a dark stain on Thailand's record for respecting media freedom,” Brad Adams, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“The Thai Navy should have debated these journalists publicly if they had concerns with the story rather than insisting on their prosecution under the draconian Computer Crimes Act and criminal libel statutes.”
Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres also reacted, saying that “by using the Computer Crimes Act to intimidate journalists, the navy is just making it obvious that it wants to conceal this sensitive information and deter any comments on this humanitarian scandal. We urge the court not to proceed with this improper complaint.”
Rohingya are a persecuted Muslim minority who arrive in Thailand after fleeing western Myanmar, frequently by boat via the Andaman Sea which lies between Thailand and Myanmar.
The controversial article was published online on July 17 last year. It quoted paragraphs from a report by Reuters news agency titled “Thai authorities implicated in Rohingya Muslim smuggling network.”
The report was awarded the Pulitzer Monday for a "distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, using any available journalistic tool."
The Pulitzer website heralds writers Jason Szep and Andrew R.C. Marshall for their "courageous reports on the violent persecution of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar that, in efforts to flee the country, often falls victim to predatory human-trafficking networks."
The winning article – ”based on an in-depth investigation that took several weeks, according to Reuters“ - detailed allegations that “some Thai naval security forces work systematically with smugglers to profit from the surge in fleeing Rohingya.” It added that smugglers in Thailand routinely beat Rohingya so as to pressure their relatives to send money and those whose families do not pay up are then sold to farms or plantations as indentured labor, or to work as slaves on Thai fishing boats.
London-based Reuters, one of the world largest news agencies, has not commented on the case against Morison and Sidasathien.
The Phuketwan report quoted a few paragraphs detailing the alleged involvement of the Thai navy and police in the trafficking, even specifying the amount of money they are allegedly paid “per Rohingya,” but whereas the Reuters article included denials by the Thai navy and government of any abuse whatsoever, the Phuketwan report did not.
Thailand's navy filed criminal defamation charges against the website last year, but it has not filed a complaint against the Reuters Bangkok office.
Rohingya have been arriving in Rakhine state, in Myanmar's west, from Eastern Bengal and Bangladesh for generations. The Myanmar government refuses to grant them citizenship, saying they are all illegal immigrants.
Tensions between them and local Buddhists, known as Arakanese, have always been high, but they boiled over in 2012, when several large clashes provoked the death of around 200 people and left 140,000 homeless.
Since then, Rohingya have been confined to grim camps in Rakhine State. Many of them pay large amounts of money to traffickers to flee the country on cramped boats in the hope of finding work in Malaysia or Australia, only to arrive in Southern Thailand where they become prey to other human traffickers and corrupt local officials.
On winning the award, Reuters journalist Marshall said on his Facebook site: "I hope the Pulitzer will draw more attention to the Rohingya, whose lives in western Myanmar look bleaker than ever.”
englishnews@aa.com.tr
