Intrepid sometime News Corp hack Andrew Drummond is appealing for cash to fund his libel defense in Thailand. Libel actions are a common device used by businesses to silence critics and can bring a jail sentence and huge fines.

www.andrew-drummond.com/2014/10/murders-...ud-koh-tao-last.html

I'm pretty surprised that he appears quite naive about where he is living in that, he aknowledges that Thai law is a slippery slope (certainly for Westerners) and money talks but seems to think that he can continue to write about corrupt Thai police, generals, judges etc (the Thais have a whole different notion of what corruption means) in downmarket UK tabloids and that it will not be noticed in Thailand.

The one rule I learned on my many visits from a well known UK music personality who lives there is- you must never ever cause a Thai person to 'lose face'- and that includes the entire country.
Thus I never argue with the locals and back down in any potential sticky situation at a 1000 miles a minute.

There is a huge ex-pat community & Thailand is the choice of destination for many former crims - a lot who just go there to get away from the Europe and it's oppressive atmosphere of - you did a crime so must pay for the rest of your life.

One great example was Gary Glitter who Drummond claims to have 'exposed' in Cambodia, ironically a country where Drummond now says he is too frightened to travel to with his 2 half-Thai kids in case he is mistaken for a pedo.

He also rails against- as do a lot of cranky old ex-pats , about "bribery" which has a whole different meaning there.

## difference between ex-pats : the 2 biggest groups are German & English. Germans seems to go with the flow, the Poms always believe they will eventually get the 'natives' around to their way of thinking.