A British BBC journalist has appeared in a Thai court for the start of a criminal defamation trial brought by a lawyer who featured in an investigation about foreigners being scammed of their retirement homes. Jonathan Head, the BBC’s Southeast Asia correspondent, faces up to five years in jail. Rights groups have said the case exposes how Thailand’s broad defamation and computer crime laws scupper investigative journalism and make it difficult to uncover wrongdoing in an endemically corrupt country.
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