(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 20 December 2005, a former senior editor of Bangkok’s English daily, “Bangkok Post”, sued the newspaper for unfairly sacking him in August following a publication on the newspaper’s front page of a “flawed” report he was responsible for about cracks in the runway of Thailand’s new international airport. Sermsuk Kasitipradit filed the […]
(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 20 December 2005, a former senior editor of Bangkok’s English daily, “Bangkok Post”, sued the newspaper for unfairly sacking him in August following a publication on the newspaper’s front page of a “flawed” report he was responsible for about cracks in the runway of Thailand’s new international airport.
Sermsuk Kasitipradit filed the lawsuit with Labor Court Post against Post Publishing PLC, the publisher of Bangkok Post, as the first defendant, the company’s deputy chief executive officer David Armstrong as second defendant and the company’s providence fund committee as third defendant. He also demanded Bt13 million (approximately US$317,000) in damages as well as reinstatement to his post.
Sermsuk was one of the editors responsible for the 9 August front-page story alleging that there were severe cracks at touchdown points on the Suvarnabhumi airport runway. It quoted an anonymous source as saying American experts brought in by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra recommended the reconstruction of the runway.
The paper was forced to issue a retraction and an apology after the report was found to be incorrect. Despite the paper’s quick retraction, on 15 August the Airport of Thailand and the New Bangkok International Airport filed a criminal libel suit against the paper and its chief editor and threatened it with a civil libel suit.
But Sermsuk’s lawyer Nakorn Chompochart said the dismissal violated his employment contract because Sermsuk did not do anything wrong. The other local English daily, “The Nation”, in its 21 December edition quoted Nakorn as saying, the decision to publish the “flawed” report was the newspaper’s editorial judgment.
The lawsuit writ said Armstrong, who was named as co-defendant in the lawsuit, signed the 29 August dismissal letter by ignoring a recommendation made by the paper’s internal disciplinary committee that the two editors’ salaries be frozen and their annual bonus withheld.
In his lawsuit, Sermsuk revealed the identity of his source, which he earlier withheld, as Sawang Virameteekul, who is a cousin to the co-founder of ruling party, Thai Rak Thai. Sawang never returned Sermsuk’s calls when the latter attempted to contact him to prove the existence of the information source about the cracks in the airport’s runway.
Sermsuk earlier told the press that the information leak was part of a conspiracy to discredit him and pressure the newspaper to get rid of him since he had been critical of the government. He went on the record to say that there has been serious interference in Bangkok Post’s editorial policy by the Post management and the government.
