On 10th September 2025, the prosecutor indicted Mr. Witoon Lianchamroon and BioThai Foundation on defamation charges filed against them by CPF. Many people came to the Nonthaburi Provincial Court to support Mr. Witoon and BioThai. These supporters included the network of farmers affected by the spread of blackchin tilapia from Bang Khun Thian, Bangkok, and Samut Songkhram – representing impacted farmers from 19 provinces; the Secretary-General of the Thailand Consumers Council; the Director of the Sustainable Agriculture Foundation-Thailand; the Secretary-General and a team of lawyers from the Environmental Law Foundation (EnLAW); and a team of human rights lawyers.
CPF is suing Mr. Witoon Lianchamroon and BioThai Foundation for sharing information that links the blackchin tilapia outbreak with CPF’s Yisan Farm in Samut Songkhram Province. They presented this data in September 2024 during an academic conference focused on addressing problems caused by blackchin tilapia.
CPF imported blackchin tilapia to Thailand in 2010 in order to breed them at Yisan Farm in Samut Songkhram. Residents in the area discovered the outbreak of blackchin tilapia in local waterways in 2011. By 2017 the fish had spread widely, severely impacting aquaculture farmers operating in brackish waters throughout four provinces in the upper Gulf of Thailand.
Impacted communities appealed to the National Human Rights Commission, and the Commission’s investigation found that CPF had violated biosecurity protocols. CPF refused to accept responsibility for the outbreak, claiming that all the imported fish had died within a few days after arrival, and that the company had sent a sample of the dead fish to the Department of Fisheries. The Department of Fisheries, however, stated that it had not received any samples from CPF, and that there was no record in the Department’s database of CPF having sent them.
Then, during the 2024 conference, BioThai Foundation presented data, citing evidence from various sources, that indicated that CPF’s Yisan Farm was at the center of the blackchin tilapia outbreak – leading to the lawsuit against the Foundation.
The Senate Commission on Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation established a “Subcommittee to Investigate Causes, Identify Solutions, and Assess Impacts of the Importation of Blackchin Tilapia into the Kingdom of Thailand for Species Research and Development.” The key findings of this subcommittee on the origins of the blackchin tilapia outbreak are consistent with the information that BioThai Foundation presented.
At present, the blackchin tilapia outbreak has spread through more than 19 provinces, with devastating economic impacts for brackish water aquaculture livelihoods. A preliminary assessment carried out by experts on aquaculture strategies at the Thai Fisheries Promotion Association found damages to be around 20 billion baht annually – not including damages to biodiversity and to other ecosystem services.
The defamation case against BioThai Foundation meets the conditions of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP), a type of litigation proceedings used to stifle public participation. SLAPPs are used by entities in positions of power to try to silence activists, journalists, and members of the general public who criticize them. Therefore, many international organizations have taken significant interest in this lawsuit; including Protection International, Greenpeace International, GRAIN, the University of Columbia in the USA, and the United Nations Working Group on Human Rights.
The Nonthaburi Provincial Court set bail in the amount of 60,000 baht (30,000 baht for each case). The court also scheduled the hearing for notification of rights for October 22nd. Additionally, a working group on SLAPPs that includes several organizations and representatives of BioThai Foundation will deliver information about CPF’s defamation case to a United Nations expert next week. This SLAPP lawsuit related to the blackchin tilapia outbreak will also be presented at a general meeting of international environmental organizations that will take place in New York, USA, later this year.