Conservative news host sues Prachatai editor for libel

Description

On 22 August 2023, Prachatai news outlet was served a court warrant on a charge of libel filed on behalf of hardline conservative talk show host Sondhi Limthongkul. The lawsuit alleges that Prachatai misrepresented Sondhi and defamed him when it published an article on 31 July 2023 quoting him as saying that the opposition's Move Forward Party would only lead Thailand into a dead end, where a military coup would be the only solution. Sondhi argued that Prachatai's coverage failed to include the full quote, in which he indicated that such intervention by the military would be illegitimate means of solving problems, and misled readers into assuming he endorses a military coup. Per Thailand's publishing law, the lawsuit names the foundation that owns Prachatai and its editor-in-chief as defendants. Sondhi also threatened similar legal action against 3 other news agencies who published his "coup" remark; all 3 outlets eventually published an apology to Sondhi and deleted the articles, and no lawsuit appeared to have been filed. [Disclosure: Prachatai is a member organization of the PFMSea monitoring platform]

Information
Number of attacked persons or entities related to media
1
Do they work as freelance or media?
Yes
Position in media
Status of journalists
Gender
Male
Age
Country
Bangkok
Full name or name of group
Identified
The name of perpetrator (individual/group)
Sondhi Limthongkul
Gender
Attack mention about gender background/sexual wording?
No
Date of incident
Type of incident
Criminal lawsuit/charge: Defamation