THIS MAGAZINE SHOULD BE INTERESTING
There's an advertisement in today's edition of Guru magazine about a new website that should create a stir.
The ad is for www.savybitch.com, which proclaims itself as "Thailand's most controversial e-magazine". It plans to launch in October in both Thai and English, and as well as claiming to offer information about the best places to eat, stay and shop, etc, it will also provide information about: '.. the worst eateries to avoid, what stores have the worst customer service, which Hi-So's have no money and the dirt behind them, which magazines are doing well and which are on the verge of a collapse.'
The ad states the website will be: "hosted in the U.S., with all uploadings done on a U.S. server" and "and all postings will first be reviewed by a team of Thai and US lawyers before being uploaded." The ad has been sponsored by an anonymous donor, it says.
This will be interesting.
5 comments:
So this web magazine is already anticipating legal problems by talking about lawyers before they have even launched. Amazing, even more so with the jail terms handed down in the last two days to Sondhi for defamation.
I see a website being added to the infamous list of blocked websites. I'm sure some of the panned eateries/shops/magazines/Hi-So's will be "people of influence" who will jerk a string, if only by reflex to criticism. US lawyers will pass almost anything, as libel laws in the US are pretty clear. Thai lawyers will be issuing a whole bunch of "it depends" memos.
You know, this reminds me of the time when Thai Air sent some Members of the Board to Texas to ink a code sharing agreement with American Airlines. The article said that these very important Board Members were met at the airport in Texas by lawyers from American Airlines. There were so many layers of cultural concepts and misunderstanding in just that one sentence...
I think it could be argued that The Bangkok Post has been somewhat irresponsible for carrying this advertisement. I'm certain they would not be happy if any of their magazines or editors were included in any of what this e-magazine is claiming it will publish.
The fact is that, so far as the mention of magazines is concerned, any publisher is likely to sue the proverbial pants of any other publisher that claims any of their publications is 'close to collapsing'. Just a mere mention or indication without a heck of a lot of proof and substantiation, would result in a court case.
Opinion is one thing but making serious allegations which, at first glance is part of what this e-magazine intends to do, is asking for trouble. And how will they know, as it's incredibly difficult to get any kind of independent information about any publication.
What is the point? Surely there's little to gain from highlighting failing magazines anyway? Although I have published stories about new magazines coming to market I'm aware that others have disappeared. That happens everywhere in the world.
There are other issues too. If this were a print magazine it would need a license from the Royal Thai Police prior to publication. Right now no such licenses are required by e-magazines or online-only publications. It could only be a matter of time .. but that's another story for another day.
Comment from Lloyd, edited to remove personal address and telephone number.
----- From Lloyd -----
The domain is registered to a Thai address so no matter where its hosted he would still be liable.
The current host is a very cheap US based service that offers basic and cheap hosting, probably a good indication of what to expect.
Administrative Contact:
Kalra, Rachan
(Bangkok address details edited, although if you want to find them a quick whois search will reveal all)
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