Fashion magazine thai

Thai actresses protest H.K. sex shop ads

BANGKOK, Feb. 9 Kyodo Two Thai actresses lodged a complaint with Thai police Tuesday against a massage parlor in Hong Kong for allegedly using photos of them on a billboard to lure customers. The formal complaint filed by Bussakorn Pornwannasirivej and Gunlaya Lertkasemsub did not specify the name of the Hong Kong establishment or its owner, according to Police Lt. Col. Norrasak Hemniti, sub-superintendent of the Crime Suppression Division. Bussakorn said the massage parlor had also violated the copyrights of a fashion magazine authorized to publish photographs of the two actresses in its April 1998 issue. Norrasak said the police would coordinate with the Foreign Ministry and the Thai consulate in Hong Kong to identify the owner and the massage parlor. The legal complaint allows for the arrest of the owner of the massage parlor upon entering Thailand, according to Norrasak. In Thailand, defamation through publication or broadcast brings a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment and a 200,000 baht fine (5,500 dollars). Bussakorn said Monday she and Gunlaya plan to file a defamation suit against the massage parlor with the assistance of the government and the Lawyers Council of Thailand. Last week, the Thai consulate in Hong Kong lodged a formal protest with the Oriental Daily News, a Chinese-language newspaper, demanding it retract allegations made in an article it published that a Miss Thailand pageant winner and many runners-up were working in the sex trade in Macao. Naruemon Puttarak, 24, whose picture was published on the front page of the daily's entertainment section for men on Jan. 22, said she will sue the paper for defamation. The picture, which carried a caption identifying her as the 1996 Miss Thailand, was actually taken in 1994, when she was crowned Miss Real Estate at a pageant in Chiang Mai.