News and Views - Tesco in Thailand Thai Tesco 'won't silence me' - BBC News, April 29, 2008 Tesco sues a second Thai journalist for libel - Guardian, April 18, 2008 Tesco in Thailand is suing a second columnist from a Bangkok business newspaper for £1.6m in libel damages. The global retailer, trading as Tesco Lotus, claims the business gossip writer for Bangkok Business News damaged the company's reputation when she said the company did not "love" Thailand. The offending article in Nongnart Harnvilai's tongue-in-cheek "Buzz" column was part of a collection of short stories on page 28 of the paper, and ran to just a few sentences... Earlier: Tesco sues critic of its expansion in Thailand for £16.4m damages - Guardian, April 8, 2008 ...Free speech campaigners are outraged by Tesco Lotus's "heavy-handed" tactics, that they believe are designed to intimidate and silence critics alarmed over the company's growth in Thailand. "Defamation suits of this nature and of such absurd proportions are clearly meant to harass legitimate criticism, intimidate independent media, and stifle discussions and debate over legitimate public concerns," said Roby Alampay, of the South-east Asian Press Alliance (Seapa). "Seapa sees the Tesco Lotus suits as harassment, pure and simple." ...A Tesco spokesman said: "Tesco is of course not trying to intimidate Mr Kamol or Mr Jit, but we do have a right to defend our company and our colleagues against false allegations. We took this action reluctantly but felt we had no choice after a sustained campaign of misinformation spread by the two individuals over many months. Thai email forwards: Anti-Tesco pdf - January 26, 2008 Here is an Anti-Tesco pdf being forwarded via email. (Photo: 2Bangkok.com) "We are a good partner" - Tesco public relations campaign - January 25, 2008 This is a full page ad from the inside cover of the Thai-language Nation Weekend news magazine. It reads: Tesco Lotus. We care about you. Creating business opportunities for the community. We are a good partner.  Tesco Lotus has more than 7,300 partners and is provides more than 35,000 goods items. The goods and services Tesco Lotus purchases from our partners is worth more than 98 billion baht per year, 98% of which are from Thai companies and about half of which are from small- and medium-sized enterprises.