Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Shin Corporation, the multi-billion baht telecom and IT giant, has lost its defamation suit against Supinya Klangnarong for her comments in an interview with the Thai Post in July 2003.
In her interview Supinya, secretary general of the Campaign for Popular Media, had stated that Shin corporation gained revenue following the election of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the company’s founder. As a result the corporation sued her and five of the Thai Post’s executives for defamation.
The court’s finding that Supinya has a right to express her opinion, and that it did not defame Shin Corp. followed a number of attempts by the company to settle out of court or otherwise avoid a judgement.
This judgement comes at an inopportune moment for the Prime Minister: his family’s recent tax-free sale of their stake in Shin has acted as a catalyst for the protests calling for Thaksin to resign.