While this wiki is solely about astronomy and has survived almost 5 years in different forms as of the time of writing, I (@Anpang) am not taking any chances regarding defamation. Some of you may know why.
This website, Polus, is owned by me, a Thai citizen, and is hosted by a German company. Therefore, both countries' defamation laws apply.
What counts as defamation
This section is just a general guide! It is neither actual legal advice, nor comprehensive.
Thai law
In Thailand, defamation is mainly covered by sections 326 to 333 of the Criminal Code. The original text can be read on this PDF at page 87, and an unofficial English translation is available here.
According to section 326, for a statement to be considered defamation:
- It must impute something to someone. If it's just a bare insult, that doesn't count under sections 326 - 333, but instead goes under section 393.
- The statement must be shown to a third person, which is always true here because this is a website. Anything on the website, even forum posts or edit summaries, count. That also means section 328 applies.
- It must be likely to impair the victim's reputation. Even if the victim's reputation is already in shambles or it didn't actually damage the victim's reputation, it still counts if it's likely to do so.
The best way to avoid defamation is, instead of directly claiming someone did something, you can say that it's actually this news agency or this other source that reported that they did something. Or, he didn't commit fraud, he was convicted of fraud by the courts. In this case, it's also a good idea to cite the statements from a very reliable source. All of this makes the situation safer, but it's still not 100% safe.
Organizations and companies can also be defamed as they are juristic persons. Defaming a dead person is an offense if it affects a surviving father, mother, spouse, or child. Criticism of a public work like a book or catalogue is fine, as long as you're commenting or giving a judgement on it instead of alleging a fact. And finally, it's very important to note that truth is not an absolute defence, but it can help.
German law
Much of the stuff that is considered defamatory in German law is also illegal under Thai law, which is already covered above, so there isn't much to say here. However, disparaging the memory of a deceased person is illegal under German law.
Removing defamatory content
If you feel like you or someone else has been defamed by content on this wiki, please contact an admin or a mod. See project:Contact for more.
Obviously, if you're already a confirmed user or higher, you can just delete the offending pages yourself.