PHUKET, Thailand — Thai authorities charged two journalists Thursday with defaming Thailand’s navy in an online news report about the trafficking of refugees from Myanmar.
The English-language news website Phuketwan posted a story last July carrying excerpts from a report by Reuters alleging that members of the Thai military were involved in trafficking captured immigrants from Myanmar’s beleaguered Rohingya ethnic minority.
The charges against Alan Morison, the website’s Australian editor, and his Thai colleague, Chutima Sidasathien, came several days after Reuters won a Pulitzer Prize for its series on the violent persecution of the Rohingya — a Muslim minority.
The journalists appeared in a court on the southern island of Phuket to hear charges of defamation and violation of the 2007 Computer Crime Act. If found guilty, they could face up to seven years in prison and a fine of about $3,010.
‘‘To us, it’s still very much a case that shouldn’t be going to court, and sadly it’s going to damage Thailand’s reputation as a democracy because these kinds of cases shouldn’t occur in any democracy,’’ Morison said. The navy filed the lawsuit against the pair in December.