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A Thai webmaster has received a suspended eight-month prison sentence for not removing online comments that insulted the Thai royal family in what is regarded as a landmark case for internet freedom in the country.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn was prosecuted under Thailand's controversial Computer Crime Act, which came into force in 2007 under an unelected government that took power after a military coup.

Thailand frequently jails people convicted oflse-majest, as royal insults are known.

But Premchaiporn's case raised international concern over the legal status of the internet in Thailand and the liability of a website operator for comments posted by a third party.

"Today's guilty verdict for Chiranuch Premchaiporn, for something somebody else wrote on her website, is a serious threat to the future of the internet in Thailand," Taj Meadows, Asia Pacific spokesman for internet services giant Google, said by email.

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"Telephone companies are not penalised for things people say on the phone and responsible website owners should not be punished for comments users post on their sites - but Thailand's Computer Crime Act is being used to do just that."

Judge Kampol Rungrat ruled thatPremchaiporn was liable for one of the 10 comments posted on her site Prachatai, a popular forum for political and cultural discussions.

Even if the webmaster was not directly responsible for the content of the comments, under the law it was, nonetheless, her "duty and responsibility" to remove them.

Premchaiporn "did not perform her duty in a timely manner" and "allowed the inappropriate posting to be on the website for too long", the judge said.

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Thai Webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiporn Sentenced for Not Deleting Comments Insulting to Royal Family in Landmark Case

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of Prachatai website, walks past a portrait of King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand. A Thai court sentenced Chiranuch to an eight-month suspended sentence for failing to act quickly enough to remove Internet posts deemed insluting to Thailand's royalty. Photo: AP

A Thai court has convicted an online editor for hosting posts critical of the revered monarchy on her website, but suspended her jail sentence amid demands to reform the lese majeste law.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn was found guilty yesterday of failing to speedily delete comments by other people deemed insulting to the royal family from her popular news website, Prachatai. The Bangkok court fined her 20,000 baht ($A643).

But Judge Kampol Rungrat, while sentencing Chiranuch to eight months in jail, suspended the sentence for a year, saying that she had co-operated with the court and had "never violated the law herself".

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"The defendant cannot deny responsibility for taking care of content on her website," he said, adding she was initially given a one-year jail term but that this was cut to eight months for her "useful" testimony to the court.

She still faces further charges - at a date to be set - of breaching section 112 of the Thai criminal code which outlaws insults to the royal family and allows for a maximum 15-year sentence for every conviction.

Hers is one of several high-profile cases that have stirred fierce debate in Thailand, where authorities are accused of trampling on free speech by exploiting the strict "lese majeste" law against defaming the royal family.

On Tuesday, a petition signed by almost 27,000 people urging reform was submitted to parliament in the first mass action of its kind.

Original post:
Webmaster jailed for not deleting insults

Kerek Wongsa / Reuters

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, a Thai website editor, leaves the Bangkok Criminal Court on May 30, 2012

In a much anticipated ruling that struck a chord of moderation in Thailands contentious battle over free speech, a Thai court on Wednesday convicted an Internet webmaster accused of violating the countrys lse-majestlaws, but suspended her sentence and imposed a small fine. The compromise ruling came as the international media turned its spotlight on Thailand with the arrival of global leaders in Bangkok for a meeting of the World Economic Forum on East Asia.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the webmaster of the Prachatai political website, was prosecuted under Thailands harsh lse-majestlaws for failing to delete fast enough comments posted by readers deemed offensive to the countrys constitutional monarchy. Her case had drawn the attention of Thai advocates of free speech and international human-rights groups, who were concerned the law is being used tostifle freedom of expression. The verdict came less than a month after an international outcry over thedeath in prisonof a 61-year-old retired truck driver convicted and sentenced to 20 years for sending text messages that threatened members of the royal family.

(MORE: Whats Behind Thailands Lse-Majest Crackdown?)

Chiranuch faced a possible 20 years in prison for 10 offensive comments left by readers. In handing down his verdict, judge Kampol Rungrat said that Chiranuch failed to delete one offensive comment for 20 days, and so sentenced her to one-year in prison, reduced to eight months, but suspended the sentence. He fined her 20,000 baht ($625), which she immediately paid with help from dozens of supporters who had flocked to the court in a show of solidarity.

Chiranuch told reporters the verdict was logical and reasonable, but said it will still have an impact on self-censorship. Sunai Phasuk, the Thailand representative of Human Rights Watch, concurred, saying the judges decision set a troubling and unacceptable precedent in that it requires intermediaries, such as Internet service providers and webmasters, to enforce censorship on behalf of the state. It creates a climate of fear, and damages Thailands attempts to position itself as a hub for information and communications technology in the region, he said.

(MORE: Thailand: Webmaster Case Tests Limits of Free Speech)

The ruling appears to conform to the ideas of 84-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who in a 2005 address to the nation said the lse-majest laws only brought problems for the monarchy and charges against violators should be dropped and those in prison released. However, since that time, and particularly following a 2006 military coup, the number of lse-majestcases filed has increased sharply, as have the penalties.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has said her government will not change the law. Her position is regarded by many analysts as an attempt to smooth relations with ultraconservative elements in the military and the establishment who have questioned the loyalty to the monarchy of her political party and of her older brother Thaksin Shinawatra, the Prime Minister ousted in the coup. Thaksin lives abroad, having fled a conviction and two-year prison sentence for abuse of power.

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Thai Webmaster Gets Suspended Sentence in Free-Speech Case

Thai webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiporn was found guilty this morning of not deleting lse majest comments on the now defunct web board of the Thai news website Prachatai quickly enough she was sentenced to 1 year in prison, which was then reduced to an 8-month SUSPENDED sentence and a THB20,000 (US$630) fine.

In its verdict, the court states that Chiranuch has failed to delete one comment for 20 days, whereas the other nine objected comments were deleted within 10 days, thus violating against Article 14 and 15 of the 2007 Computer Crimes Actwhich punishes false data that damages a third party, causes public panic or undermines the countrys security and anyservice provider intentionally supporting the said offenses, respectively despite the fact that the court also statesthat the expectation to pre-emptively delete illegal comments was unfair.

Below is a full live timeline of the mornings events

Today at 10.00 AM (Bangkok time) the Thai Criminal Court will give its verdict againstChiranuch Jiew Premchaiporn, the webmaster of the news websitePrachatai. Chiranuch is being prosecuted for failing to delete 10 commentsmade by othersthat are deemed insulting to the monarchynot quickly enough. She has been arrestedin 2009andagain in 2011, while the website itself has been hit by numerous takedown orders and blocked repeatedly by authorities.

Chiranuch "Jiew" Premchaiporn, webmaster of the Thai news website Prachatai, awaiting her verdict at the Crminal Court in Bangkok, Thailand on April 30, 2012. Miss Chiarnuch has been charged for not deleting comments deemed insulting to the country's monarchy not quickly enough and could face 20 years in prison. (Picture: Twitter/@thainetizen)

If that paragraph above sounds familiar to you it should be: these are exactly the same words from the live-blog from the original verdict date one month ago. However, just mere 10 minutes before it was about to start, the courtdecidedto postpone the verdict, since it needed more time due to the complexity of the case.

A lot has happened since then, most notably the death of lse majest-victim Amphon Uncle SMS Tangnoppakul in prison and the lse majest complaint lodged against Prachatai columnist PravitRojanaphruk. In light of these events, Chiranuchs case could be an even more unprecedented moment that could really determine Thailands (dis-)regard for freedom of speech.

Ill live-blog and comment the verdict here and also try to gather as many as reactions as possible. Also, be sure to follow me on Twitter@Saksithfor up-to-the minute updates.

+++NOTE: All times are local Bangkok time (GMT +7)+++

12.13 h: That wraps up our live-blog. Todays verdict is a clear sign by the Thai state that freedom of expression doesnt really exist here. Besides directly cracking down on content that is deemed insulting, defaming to the monarchy or just simply not according to a dominant national narrative, the verdict also underlines the requirement to its citizen to self-censor to satisfy a pre-emptive obedience.

Continued here:
Thai webmaster Chiranuch found guilty, but avoids jail term

BANGKOK A court sentenced a Thai webmaster Wednesday to an eight-month suspended sentence for not moving quickly enough to delete online comments deemed insulting to the country's royalty in a case widely seen as a test of freedom of expression in Thailand.

While the ruling showed leniency, it also sent the message that Internet content in the Southeast Asian nation must be self-censored. Chiranuch Premchaiporn had faced up to 20 years in prison for failing to quickly remove 10 comments others had posted on her Prachatai news website.

She told reporters she found the verdict reasonable but still had thought she would be acquitted.

The case drew international concern over censorship of the Internet in general and the liability of a website operator for comments posted by a third party.

"Today's guilty verdict for Chiranuch Premchaiporn, for something somebody else wrote on her website, is a serious threat to the future of the Internet in Thailand," Taj Meadows, Asia Pacific spokesman for Internet services giant Google, said by email.

"Telephone companies are not penalized for things people say on the phone and responsible website owners should not be punished for comments users post on their sites," he wrote. "The precedent set today is bad for Thai businesses, users and the innovative potential of Thailand's Internet economy."

Chiranuch was prosecuted under Thailand's computer-crime laws, which were enacted in 2007 under an interim, unelected government that came to power after a coup a year earlier. The laws address hacking and other online offenses, but also bar the circulation of material deemed detrimental to national security, which includes defaming the monarchy.

Her case was inextricably linked to Thailand's fractious politics of recent years, as the country's traditional ruling class allying big business, the military and royalists has been desperately fighting to retain reverence for the monarchy and their influence over politics.

Most people still respect 84-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, but the evident involvement of palace circles in supporting the 2006 military coup against elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra opened the royal institution to unprecedented criticism, much of which was circulated on the Internet.

Bangkok Criminal Court Judge Kampol Rungrat said his guilty verdict was based on one particular post that was left on the Prachatai site for 20 days.

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Thai webmaster gets 8-month suspended sentence in case seen as test of free speech