Bangkok: Australian journalist Alan Morison, facing a possible long jail sentence over a contentious criminal defamation case, has told his ailing father he will not be able to travel to Australia to attend his 91st birthday, despite fears the news may kill him.
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"This year I can't be there. I am a prisoner of Thailand," Mr Morison wrote in a letter to his father John Morison, a World War II veteran.
"My passport has been seized because I am being accused by the Royal Thai Navy of criminal defamation," he wrote.
"I face possibly a long jail term."
Mr Morison, 66, wrote that he made the tough decision to break the news of the charges against him and his Thai colleague, Chutima Sidasathian, in a letter because his father's hearing is failing.
"I also know that my sisters have kept secret from you the fact that I am a prisoner in Thailand," he wrote.
"They fear the news will kill you."
Last year, the Royal Thai Navy brought charges of criminal defamation and computer crimes against Mr Morison and Ms Chutima over a story published on Mr Morison's Phuketwan website that included one paragraph from a Reuters news agency report on the violent persecution of Burma's Rohingya Muslim minority.
The navy has taken no action against Reuters, an international agency which won a Pulitzer prize for its coverage of the Rohingya that included the report.
The laying of the charges against the pair has been condemned by the United Nations, human rights and journalist organisations and prompted criticism of Thailand's defamation laws that provide for jail terms of up to seven years.
Mr Morison told his father that if he had been with him on his birthday on Thursday he probably would have told him about the defamation case "as gently as possible."
"So instead I must write to let you know what a great father you've been all these many years and that your sacrifices will never be forgotten," he wrote.
Mr Morison, a former senior editor of The Age, told Fairfax Media he doubts he and Ms Chutima will get a fair trial when the charges are heard in a Phuket court next year following a ruling in July by the Rights and Liberties Protection Department of Thailand's Justice Ministry.
In rejecting a request for the department to have a special fund at the ministry cover the cost of their bail, the ruling says, in part that information Mr Morison and Ms Chutima wrote in the article that is the subject of the defamation case was "false and not true."
"The reputation of the Royal Thai Navy was damaged and made people look down on the navy," according to a translation of the ruling published in Phuketwan.
Mr Morison told his father a court application he made to have his surrendered passport returned so he could travel to Australia so he could be there for his birthday has been rejected and "if the case drags on, I could be a prisoner of Thailand for the next few years."
"I miss you and I miss all of the family," he said.
Mr Morison said the defamation case has not stopped him and Ms Chutima revealing the unjust treatment of Rohingya who arrive in Thailand by boat, referring to a series of articles published in Phuketwan on an exodus of thousands of people from Burma's western Rakhine state, where tens of thousands of displaced people are languishing in camps.
"We've told the Royal Thai Navy that if they want to stop us reporting on what's happening to the boatpeople, they will have to kill us," Mr Morison told his father.
"We hope the navy sees sense and instead of using draconian laws against a small media organisation, turns their attention to the human traffickers or to the Burmese Government driving the Rohingya into the sea. Sadly, that seems unlikely to happen soon," he wrote.
Mr Morison told his father he became more hopeful recently when the British Government won back the passport back of Andy Hall, a British human rights defender also facing criminal defamation charges, by simply asking the Thai courts.
"For reasons they decline to explain, the Australian Government continues to reject my pleas to do the same in my case, even though officially, my passport is their property," he wrote.
Mr Morison told his father it is strange the Royal Thai Navy is suing Phuketwan and not Reuters, adding this was "probably because we are a very small organisation and Reuters is a large one."
In April, Mr Morison spent five hours in a small prison cell crowded with 90 prisoners while supporters raised bail for him and Ms Chutima, who had been employed by Reuters to help research their award-winning coverage of the Rohingya issue.
"It wasn't hell but it wasn't far off," he said.
