Court criticised for indicting UK human rights activist in defamation case
FINNISH civil society organisation Finnwatch has expressed regret over a Thai court's decision to indict British rights activist Andy Hall.
The Bangkok South Criminal Court indicted Hall yesterday for criminal defamation and a Computer Crimes Act case filed against him by pineapple processing company Natural Fruit Co Ltd.
Sonja Vartiala, executive director of Finnwatch, said the case was nothing but an attempt to gag a human rights defender.
“To equate someone’s reputation with another person’s liberty is always disproportionate. Thailand should abolish its criminal defamation laws as they infringe on freedom of expression,” said Vartiala, whose organisation specialises in corporate responsibility.
Natural Fruit has filed four cases against Hall following the publication and dissemination of Finnwatch’s “Cheap has a High Price” report in early 2013.
The report, which Hall contributed research to, was based on information gathered through interviews with the company’s workers, who complained about alleged labour rights violations at the plant.
Hall uncovered allegedly unlawful working conditions including child labour, high recruitment fees, illegal salary deductions, payments below the minimum wage, confiscation of migrant workers’ passports and work permits and physical violence.
The criminal defamation and Computer Crimes Act cases are the most severe of all the cases filed against Hall, and carries a maximum penalty of up to seven years jail.
Hall has been ordered to appear at the court on October 19. He could face detention and official charges.
Of the other three cases, one is for criminal defamation and the other two are civil defamation cases, in which damages of Bt400 million are being sought by the company. The hearings for the civil defamation cases have not been scheduled yet.
On Friday, a global coalition of 44 human rights, environmental and labour organisations, including many of the world’s largest global union federations, said the government was failing to meet its obligations under international human rights law and standards by participating in the prosecution of Hall.
Letter to the PM
Last week, they addressed their concerns in a letter sent to Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha.
“If Thailand is serious about addressing the alarming levels of human trafficking among its migrant worker population, it can’t throw those who uncover abuses in jail,” said Abby McGill, campaigns director at the International Labour Rights Forum, who helped coordinate the letter action.
“Criminal defamation is being used to punish those who speak out, and it’s a contributing factor to the fear among migrant communities that keeps them vulnerable to traffickers.
“It’s time for Thailand to demonstrate it is protecting these workers, not punishing those who speak on their behalf.”
The organisations that signed the letter called for the government to bring its laws on criminal defamation and computer crimes into compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Thailand ratified, as an essential step towards protecting freedom of speech.
They also called on the government to not curtail legitimate research that documents when companies mistreat workers and violate labour laws.
The US State Department cited Hall’s case in its 2015 Trafficking in Persons report and said the prosecution of journalists and human rights defenders undermined the ability of the government to hold human traffickers accountable for their crimes.
The full text of the letter is available at www.labourrights.org/|AndyHallLetter2015.
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