Thai court finds British labour activist defamed fruit firm

BANGKOK — A court in the Thai capital on Monday ordered a British labour rights activist to pay 10 million baht (US$321,000) in damages to a company that filed a civil defamation suit after he helped expose alleged human rights violations at its factory.

The ruling against Andy Hall was the latest development involving four defamation suits filed by pineapple canning company Natural Fruit, which employed migrant Myanmar workers who claimed the company had abused them and broke labour regulations. Hall’s legal troubles stem from a 2013 report he researched for the Finnish consumer organization Finnwatch that alleged labour abuses at Natural Fruit’s facilities. They also concern an interview he gave to Al-jazeera on the subject, which was the focus of Monday’s ruling. Natural Fruit claimed the report Hall helped research and his interview comments hurt their business. Hall has prevailed in one of the two criminal defamation suits against him, while the other is pending, as is another civil suit. He has also filed a countersuit against Natural Fruit. Hall left Thailand in 2016, citing intolerable legal harassment after another company, poultry producer Thammakaset Farm, sued him in another case, but still works on labour rights issues concerning migrants in Thailand.

“This verdict is a major setback for rights of human rights defenders, migrant workers, labour/migration activists and researchers everywhere and casts a dark shadow over recent positive progress the Thai government and Thai industry has made to improve migrant worker conditions,” Hall commented Monday on his Twitter account.