Supinya Klangnarong

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Supinya Klangnarong is a Thai journalist and media rights advocate. She is the secretary-general of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform. However, in the path of struggle against the elected Prime Minister of Thailand, Supinya joined the People Alliances for Democracy (PAD), and accordingly, was also a part of the pro-coup activists in Thailand.

On July 16, 2003, the Thai Post, a Thai-language daily newspaper, published comments from Supinya who said that Shin Corporation, then majority owned by the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had benefited because of favorable policies by the Thaksin government.

Shin Corp. filed a criminal libel lawsuit over the article, naming Supinya and the paper as co-defendants. A civil suit filed by Shin sought 400 million baht in compensation.

After the Thaksin family sold its shares in Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek Holdings, the company offered to drop the lawsuit on the condition that Supinya apologize for her comments. Supinya refused the offer.

On March 14, 2006, the Criminal Court threw out the criminal lawsuit, saying the article in the Thai Post was presented in good faith and in the public's best interest. On May 8, 2006, Shin Corp. asked that the civil lawsuit be withdrawn. Neither Supinya nor Thai Post had any objections, so the court withdrew the civil suit. It should be noted that the court has never endorsed the content of Supinya's interview, i.e., it is wrong to presume that her interview was reasonable.

The cases were the subject of the 2007 independent documentary film, The Truth Be Told: The Cases Against Supinya Klangnarong, filmed over the course of nearly three years and directed by Pimpaka Towira.^[1]