Section 328: Defamation by publication
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าความผิดฐานหมิ่นประมาทได้กระทำโดยการโฆษณาด้วยเอกสาร ภาพวาด ภาพระบายสี ภาพยนตร์ ภาพหรือตัวอักษรที่ทำให้ปรากฏไม่ว่าด้วยวิธีใด ๆ แผ่นเสียง หรือสิ่งบันทึกเสียง บันทึกภาพ หรือบันทึกอักษร กระทำโดยการกระจายเสียง หรือการกระจายภาพ หรือโดยกระทำการป่าวประกาศด้วยวิธีอื่น ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินสองปี และปรับไม่เกินสองแสนบาท
English translation
Where the offence of defamation is committed by publication through a document, a drawing, a painting, a cinematograph film, a picture or letters made visible by any means, a record, a sound recording, an image recording or a character recording, by sound broadcast or image broadcast, or by any other means of propagation, the offender shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years and a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand baht.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 328 is the aggravated form of defamation, applying where the base offence in Section 326 is committed by publication. The aggravating element is the mode of communication: a document, drawing, painting, cinematograph film, picture, visible letters, sound or image broadcast, or any other means of propagation. Publication increases the potential reach and harm, which is reflected in the higher penalty of up to two years imprisonment and a fine up to 200,000 baht, and in the mandatory combination of imprisonment and fine in the text. The Section 326 elements must still be established, and the good-faith and truth defences in Sections 329 and 330 apply. Social media and print publications are the typical settings; the offence remains compoundable under Section 333.
Why this matters in practice
Section 328 is the charge most often used for defamatory posts, articles and broadcasts, and carries real prison exposure of up to two years plus a fine to 200,000 baht. A key threshold question is whether the statement was truly published to the public: courts have distinguished spreading a message to the general public from sending it only within a small closed group. Truth (Section 330) and good-faith fair comment (Section 329) remain the principal defences, and the offence is compoundable under Section 333. Online publication may also trigger separate liability under the Computer Crime Act. See online and social media defamation in Thailand for how these cases are handled.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 321/2568 (2025)
Installing large banners bearing a person's photograph and defamatory wording beside a busy public road, intending the public to see it, is defamation by publication under Section 328, and the good-faith defences in Section 329(1) and (3) do not apply where lawful process was available.
The defendant placed two large vinyl banners with the complainant's image and defamatory text beside a heavily used public highway. The Court held this was defamation by publication and rejected the Section 329(1) and (3) good-faith defence.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 406/2567 (2024)
Even where defamation is charged as publication under Section 328, an honest, fair comment on a matter of public concern that ordinary people would make is protected under Section 329(3) and is not an offence.
The appellate court had convicted the defendant under Section 328 and imposed one year in prison. The Supreme Court held the statements were a good-faith fair comment under Section 329(3), reversed, and dismissed the case.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 190 Supreme Court decisions (1960 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 1351/2567 (2024)
- Decision 976/2567 (2024)
- Decision 418/2567 (2024)
- Decision 406/2567 (2024)
- Decision 655/2567 (2024)
- Decision 4403/2566 (2023)
- Decision 8481/2563 (2020)
- Decision 986/2563 (2020)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 326 163
- Section 83 87
- Section 91 60
- Section 29 51
- Section 30 48
- Section 332 46
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
What is the penalty for online defamation in Thailand?
Defamation by publication, including social media posts, falls under Section 328 with up to two years imprisonment and a fine of up to 200,000 baht. The Computer Crime Act may also apply to online content.
Does a message in a private group count as publication?
Not necessarily. Courts have held that sending a message only to a small closed group may not amount to spreading it to the general public, which is required for the Section 328 aggravation.
Is Section 328 defamation compoundable?
Yes. By Section 333 defamation offences, including publication under Section 328, are compoundable and can be settled or the complaint withdrawn.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 328 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 328. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-328/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 328 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-328/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-328/"><p>Where the offence of defamation is committed by publication through a document, a drawing, a painting, a cinematograph film, a picture or letters made visible by any means, a record, a sound recording, an image recording or a character recording, by sound broadcast or image…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 328 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-328/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.