Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to inform you that a prominent women’s rights defender Ticha Na Nakorn, was acquitted on 19 October 2006 in a criminal libel case filed by a former national police chief.
Ticha Na Nakorn, the former coordinator of the Women and Constitution Network, and 16 other defendants–journalists and media professionals– were sued by the former national police chief, Pol Gen Sant Sarutanont in October 2003 over allegations Ticha made about sexual harassment of a female news reporter by a senior police officer in her article “A Flirting Senior” published in the Matichon daily on June 6 and 22, 2003. While the Civil Court in Bangkok acquitted all of the defendants on 30 November 2003, the criminal libel cases against her and other defendants had been continued by the public prosecutor (To see the AHRC’s original appeal regarding this case, please go to: UA-302-2006).
On 19 October 2006, the Bangkok South Criminal Court acquitted Ticha in the concerned criminal libel case on the grounds that Pol Gen Sant could not be the defamed party because “a senior police officer” mentioned in Thicha’s article did not specify him but could be any of the high-ranking police officers.
While welcoming the court decision, the AHRC is gravely concerned that the courts can only intervene in rights issues in a very narrow way since the 1997 Constitution was abolished in Thailand. The 1997 Constitution guarantees many rights including the right of expression, free media and right to comment on public good. However, after it was abolished by the military junta soon after the coup in September 2006, as can be seen in this case, the courts cannot currently rule about rights issues but can only look into the technicalities of the cases. Under the circumstances, the courts in Thailand are not independent and their functions are critically deteriorated today (refer to AHRC statement: AS-238-2006).
The AHRC has already reported several attacks by the military junta on free media and freedom of expression (See further: UP-190-2006 and UP-194-2006).
Recent AHRC statements concerning the 1997 Constitution are:
AS-246-2006: THAILAND: 1997 CONSTITUTION – Celebrating 11 October 1997
AS-242-2006: THAILAND: MILITARY COUP–Constitutional fictions
AS-238-2006: THAILAND: MILITARY COUP – How to make courts independent?
AS-229-2006: THAILAND: MILITARY COUP – Misunderstanding the coup
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)
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