Phuketwan journalist Chutima Sidasathian dies at 44

Award-winning investigative journalist Chutima Sidasathian, whose reporting for the Phuket-based online outlet Phuketwan drew legal action from powerful interests, has died aged 44.

She died on 15 August in Innsbruck, Austria, where she had been undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer, according to her friend Michele Nayman.

Sidasathian worked with her partner, journalist Alan Morison, who founded Phuketwan. In 2013, the Royal Thai Navy filed criminal defamation and computer crime complaints against the pair over a report implicating navy personnel in the trafficking of Rohingya refugees.

The Phuket Provincial Court dismissed the suits in September 2015. Phuketwan later closed, after what Sidasathian described at the time as pressure from constant legal harassment.

In March 2024, Sidasathian was acquitted of three criminal defamation charges in a case brought by a local mayor in Nakhon Ratchasima. The case followed her reporting on alleged irregularities in microcredit lending under the Village Fund programme through the state-owned Government Savings Bank.

The provincial court ruled that she was entitled to criticise local administrators in the public interest. The government subsequently investigated the banking issue, while an internal GSB investigation confirmed her findings, according to the report.

The National Human Rights Commission classified the case as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP. Supporters said that, by late 2025, only one of five SLAPP complaints connected to Sidasathian’s work remained outstanding.

Media Defence quoted her in December 2025 as saying: “Before I die, I want the case against me to be dropped and for Thailand to abolish criminal defamation.”

Morison died a year before Sidasathian.