Justice system delivers ray of hope
Re: "Court acquits two Phuket journalists", National, September 2.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, justice seems to have prevailed in Thailand. Following hard on the heels of the harsh prison sentences imposed on prominent individuals for their past misdeeds, the acquittal of two journalists from the Phuketwan news website has left me overjoyed. The Navy should not have brought the criminal-defamation charges in the first place.
The court’s rationale for the ruling was impressive: the allegations that Navy personnel were involved in the trafficking of migrants were made by Reuters news agency and were thus credible and not malicious, but rather in the public interest. In hindsight, both journalists should have been granted medals for revealing the presence of trafficking on Thai soil in 2013. If we had taken their reports seriously back then, we would never have found ourselves on the lowest rung of the US State Department Report on Human Trafficking this year.
The judiciary seems now to be in a full swing. Justice is not only being done, it is being seen to be done. Thailand’s future suddenly looks more promising.
Songdej Praditsmanont
