Thai craft beer fancier fined for Facebook photo, review

BANGKOK — A court in Thailand handed a craft beer enthusiast a 150,000 baht ($4,360) fine and a suspended six-month prison sentence for violating a law on advertising alcoholic beverages by posting a photo of a beer with his evaluation of it on Facebook.

Artid Sivahansaphan said Monday he plans to appeal his conviction in the hope of changing a law he believes is unfair to consumers and small entrepreneurs.

The 2008 Alcoholic Beverage Control Act prohibits “advertising or displaying, directly or indirectly, the name or trademark of any alcoholic beverage.” It carries a maximum penalty of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 baht ($14,540).

Artid was convicted on Friday by a court in Nonthaburi, just north of Bangkok, for a post on Facebook in 2020. An initial penalty of eight months in prison and a 200,000 baht ($5,810) fine was reduced to a suspended six-month sentence…