Prosecutors in Thailand should immediately drop criminal defamation charges brought against three human rights defenders by Thammakaset Company for their support of other activists facing criminal charges, and the Thai government should repeal criminal defamation law and strengthen anti-SLAPP measures, said Human Rights Watch.

<p>Senator Upakit Pachariyangkun has sued Move Forward Party MP Rangsiman Rome for defamation, after <a href="https://prachataienglish.com/node/10239">Rangsiman gave a speech during Thursday&rsquo;s (16 February) censure debate on Upakit&rsquo;s business links to Tun Min Latt</a>, a Myanmar tycoon with close ties to coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hliang.&nbsp;</p>

<p>On Tuesday (7 February), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Lawyers&rsquo; Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) jointly submitted a legal brief (amicus curiae) to the Nakhon Pathom Provincial Court in criminal defamation proceeding against Thai journalist Pratch Rujivanarom, former editor of GreenNews Agency.</p>

<p>Students, academics, and artists have demanded that Chiang Mai University (CMU) launch an investigation against Faculty of Fine Arts lecturer Pongsiri Kiddee, after he filed a defamation lawsuit against art critic and writer Pearamon Tulavardhana for an article criticizing an exhibition featuring his work. &nbsp;</p>

<p>An artists&rsquo; and academics&rsquo; network has launched a campaign calling for support for freedom of expression in art and academia, after art critic Pearamon Tulavardhana was sued for defamation by a Chiang Mai University lecturer whose work was part of an exhibition she criticized.</p>

<p>A court in Narathiwat on Wednesday (19 October) <a href="https://tlhr2014.com/archives/49727">sentenced</a> a 31-year-old woman to 9 years in prison on charges of royal defamation and violation of the Computer Crimes Act for sharing Facebook posts about the use of violence to disperse pro-democracy protesters in 2020 and the public being prohibited from using Sanam Luang.</p>

<p>On 12 September, South Bangkok Criminal Court accepted a defamation lawsuit filed by Thammakaset Co Ltd, the 39th of its kind, against Angkhana Neelapaijit, Puttanee Kangkun, and Thanaporn Saleephol over their tweets about labour rights violations at their farm.</p>

<p>Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, former Superintendent of Kaeng Krachan National Park, has filed a perjury complaint against human rights lawyer Waraporn Utairangsee, who was the legal representative for the Bang Kloi Indigenous Karen community and its spiritual leader Ko-i Meemi.</p>

<p>The Supreme Court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit against former Voice TV reporter Suchanee Cloitre filed by the Thammakaset Company on the grounds that her report was criticism made in good faith.</p>

<p>A disability rights advocate spent half a day in jail &ndash; in his wheelchair &ndash; after a court unexpectedly accepted a criminal case against him and held him in custody as his lawyers scrambled to raise bail. His alleged crime: posting a photo of a car that he believed was improperly occupying a wheelchair user&rsquo;s parking space.</p>

<p>The Civil Court said on Tuesday (9 November) that it will issue a ruling on 30 November in a lawsuit filed against historian Nattapol Chaiching and his publisher, Same Sky Books for producing two books based on Nattapol&rsquo;s PhD thesis about Thai politics during the Cold War period.</p>

<p>Art critic Pearamon Tulavardhana reports that she has received a court summons on a charge of defamation by publication filed against her by Chiang Mai University lecturer Pongsiri Kiddee, after she published an article on an exhibition organized by the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture (OCAC).</p>