Thai journalist sentenced over tweet warns of threat to media freedom

A Thai journalist sentenced to two years in prison for defaming the owner of a poultry farm via a tweet said Thursday the kingdom’s criminal libel laws are eviscerating media freedom.

A court convicted Suchanee Cloitre in December for a tweet referencing a dispute over working conditions at a chicken farm owned by the Thammakaset company.

The farm had been at the centre of a labour dispute by Myanmar workers complaining of punishing working hours and conditions.

Thailand’s Supreme Court last year ordered the farm’s owner Chanchai Pheamphon to pay compensation to the workers.

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