![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sat-statement-819x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n“Following the publication on social media of false, distorted information regarding SAT’s role and responsibilities in the preparations for the 33rd SEA Games, hosted by Thailand…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“SAT is very pleased and ready to accept constructive and good-faith criticism. SAT is prepared to make improvements and rectifications to ensure the organisation of this SEA Games meets the highest international standards.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“However, if the criticism or commentary on SAT’s operations is based on false information, distortion of facts, or contains defamatory content causing damage or dishonor to SAT, which may affect the spirit and morale of SAT employees and officials in their duties, SAT will take appropriate legal action against the individuals involved, including disciplinary, civil, and criminal action, as required by law.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The goal of such legal action is to protect the honour and dignity of the SAT organisation,\u201d said the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Games, which has seen Cambodia only sending a token number of athletes in eight sport, due to security concerns, has been plagued by numerous criticism from at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opposition politicians and the public have questioned \u201cbudget misuse\u201d, venue readiness, athlete discontent over non-payment of allowances, venue readiness as well as poor promotions and information to the public as well as media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month petanque, where Thailand boasts of a couple of world champions, was originally barred by the world body from being included at the Games due to some governing infractions until a reprieve was given by the world body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SEA Games, originally scheduled to be held in three cities, is now being hosted only in Bangkok and Chonburi. Severe flooding had forced all 11 events scheduled to be held in Songkhla to be relocated to Bangkok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While criticism of Games hosts is not new, including at Cambodia 2023, this is the first time that any host authorities have actually threatened legal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The legal threat itself has already created its own criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Thai Enquirer reported that the announcement has reignited debate over Thailand\u2019s defamation laws, which allow for criminal prosecution in addition to civil lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It added that critics argue that these laws were overly broad, vaguely defined, and easily abused, giving powerful actors the ability to silence dissent or intimidate critics. Even true statements or matters of public interest can sometimes lead to criminal charges, creating a chilling effect on journalists, activists, and ordinary social media users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics have also raised concern that that while protecting staff from false accusations is legitimate, relying on Thailand\u2019s criminal defamation system would discourage legitimate public discussion and scrutiny of government and public institutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Faced with numerous criticism on the conduct of the SEA Games, scheduled to officially start next week, the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","category-sea-games"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed.jpg",1756,1171,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed.jpg",1756,1171,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a> SEA Games<\/a>","tag_info":"SEA Games","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/legal_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6827,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6824\/revisions\/6827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}