Court clears Pita in iTV media shareholding case
The Constitutional Court ruled on Jan 24 that Pita Limjaroenrat, the former leader of the electionwinning Move Forward Party (MFP), did not hold shares in a media business when he applied to run for office last year, and his MP status therefore remains intact.
The nine-member panel ruled 8-1 that Mr Pita did not violate the regulation prohibiting MPs from owning shares in media companies.
Mr Pita held 42,000 shares in iTV Plc, or 0.0035% of the company’s total, as the executor of the estate of his late father, their original owner. He transferred the shares to a relative last year after the holding was revealed.
The law that prohibits MPs from holding shares in a media business was intended to ensure that they could not unduly influence news coverage.
The judges said in their ruling that even if Mr Pita had held one share, he could have been guilty if iTV were a functioning media business. But they concluded that it was not, despite apparent attempts by opponents of Mr Pita to prove otherwise.
The court said that iTV ceased to be a media organisation in March 2007 and only remained a business entity because it is still involved in a legal dispute with the government over unpaid concession fees, and it did not have any revenue from any media services.
The Constitutional Court suspended Mr Pita as an MP on July 19 last year when it accepted a complaint from the Election Commission that he had violated Section 151 of the Election Act, which states that a candidate who applies to run as an MP while knowing that he might be in violation of election rules in this case, holding shares in a media company – would face disqualification.
On the same day, the joint House and Senate sitting voted to reject his renomination for prime minister. He had lost an earlier premiership vote the week before.
The Move Forward Party won the May 14, 2023, election with 151 House seats but it failed to form a government because the second runner-up Pheu Thai Party, which had 141 seats and was its former coalition ally, instead teamed up with 10 other parties and secured 320 votes in the 500-member House.
Mr Pita is now in the clear but, at time of press, the MFP was facing another major challenge as the Constitutional Court was set to rule on Wednesday (Jan 31) whether the party’s policy to amend Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the lese-majeste law, represents an attempt to overthrow the constitutional monarchy. Such a finding could set in motion a move to dissolve the party.