Leading Thai Undergarment company threatnes the press

August 6th, 2008 | by Sajal Kayan |

I run a news.google.com published website. Recently we ran a story titled “5000 undergarment workers storm Government House“. The source of this story is National News Bureau, Public Relations Department of Thailand (Who has now pulled off the story).

The story on my site was published at August 5th, 2008 - 2:59 pm (Thai Time). At about 8:30 pm (too late to expect anyone working), I get a call on my landline *allegedly* from the PR company who takes care of the PR for “Triumph International (Thailand)”, the company the news story is about. I am really a dumb ass for not making a note of her name or the name of the company she works for.

She demanded I pull off the story as it is incorrect. They have made my source (and even their source) do the same. She said that the figures and facts were incorrect. I politely asked for the correct information, but she insisted I remove the story. I tried explaining to her that simply deleting pages which exist in many places in my link structure is harmful for my site. I told her ill comply to her request by morning as all my staff have left work. At this point I thought all was well, when all of a sudden she brought out a point that this is story is wrong and that there can be legal action taken against us.

WTF!!! I said ill comply why you wanna talk about legal action?

At this point the story is still active on the site for the following reasons.

  1. For all we know the the call was not from someone authentic. Someone was fooling with me.
  2. I haven’t received any request or threat in writing.
  3. The request came in too late, beyond our office timing (9am to 5pm)
  4. We have not received any press release or press statement from the company.  Even their pressroom doesn’t have Thailand in the list.

Friendly tip : If you want to damage reputation of your competitor, call up all media outlets you can think of, pretend to be the competitor, and give them legal threats. Make sure to leave no paper trail.

Would love to see your opinions via the comments. I believe this is not an issue to be taken lightly. Should i suck up to the TPTB?

Edit1 : The original story is also published here.
Edit2: Very interesting discussions at the Bangkok Bugle

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  1. 4 Responses to “Leading Thai Undergarment company threatnes the press”

  2. By Ray on Aug 6, 2008 | Reply

    Don’t let them harass you into taking it down, maybe seek some legal advice in the field and possibly enquire as to why other sources have taken it down.

    Unless it is in writing you should probably ignore it, and if it does come in writing at least you will have waited until then, rather than bowing to pressure as others have. If you are citing your sources in the article does that then pass the blame onto them?

    Well done for making a stand.

  3. By Andrew on Aug 7, 2008 | Reply

    Sajal. Bloggers and website operators are publishers, just like any newspaper or magazine. If you publish something factually incorrect or damaging then you run the risk of legal action, even if that story came to you as part of an automated feed.

    I think waiting for something in writing, as Ray says, could lead to more trouble. Let’s say I wrote something defematory about you on my website. You would want it removed immediately, and the longer it stays up the more damage you could claim has been caused to your reputation.

    I have experience of both sides of this. I’m a blogger and I have also asked for comments to be removed that are factually wrong about one of the magazines my company publishes. Those comments were damaging, and if the author had not removed them I would certainly have had to consider some kind of action to have them removed and/or claim for damages.

    I’ve blogged about your case today because, like you, I think this is a very important issue that most bloggers and website authors don’t fully understand.

  4. By BangkokDan on Aug 8, 2008 | Reply

    I’d have called Triumph the very next day, explained what had happened and that I would like to get the story straight. I’m sure they’d be very interested in presenting their side. No more legal threat possible.

    Just today our site received a very threatening comment - with a threat against another commentator. Threatening involving certain authorities and such.

    It’s anarchy out there in the blogsphere. Everything seems to be possible and allowed.

    The comment was pure slander and not publishable.

    Anyway Sajal, nothing to fear if you publish factually correct work.

    Let know if you heared/hear again of that threatening lady.

  5. By Ray on Aug 8, 2008 | Reply

    Andrew makes a lot of sense there, obviously a subject that he has had to deal with before, as he said;

    I think this is a very important issue that most bloggers and website authors don’t fully understand.

    As he says, the longer it displayed the more damage it does, but how much faith do you have in the Thai legal system.
    Do you think a case such as this would have been pushed through fast since it deals with a topic that is a currently debated issue here. When you consider that the Thai legal system is known for long, protracted legal cases (unless your husband was the PM) that can last for years.
    In the short, Sajal you were right to remove the comments if you thought it would do you or your business harm, especially with the Thai government so willing to block websites.

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