PAUL BARRY: What do you feel about the possibility of going to jail?

ALAN MORISON: We, we hope it's unlikely. I mean my colleague and I have been inside Phuket prison on dawn raids several times and we know what conditions are like. I mean, the jail was built for 750 people and it now houses 3,000. So, at my age I wouldn't expect to last very long inside.

PAUL BARRY: Why are you doing this, why are you fighting this?

ALAN MORISON: As a matter of principle. I mean, I've been a journalist for 49 years and wherever I, I am I think it's important that the media is as free as it could possibly be, and this, this was a false charge. I mean, there is no way that we committed a defamation so what are we to do, run?

PAUL BARRY: Well you could run. You could go back to Australia. You have had the opportunity to do that.

ALAN MORISON: And leave my colleague here in Thailand, my brave colleague, to face the consequences? No thanks.

PAUL BARRY: ... You have been told that if you apologise, these charges will go away. Is that not something that you could do?***[See note at end of transcript]

ALAN MORISON: Well, we talked about, we talked about our own circumstances and decided that the principle is more important and we feel bound to pursue the principle at whatever cost to ourselves. So, you know, it's something that we've considered, but to ask us for an apology for something we haven't done, I mean, really how do we, how do we, how do we do that? We say sorry for something that somebody else has said. I mean, it would create a precedent not just in Thailand but for other, other governments to react in the same way that the Thai government has reacted and that's not something that would be good for journalism internationally.

PAUL BARRY: It's still a very brave thing to do, to fight, to fight this on a principle when it's your, your future and freedom at stake.

ALAN MORISON: My, my colleague Chutima is the brave one. I'm, I'm just pretending to be brave.

PAUL BARRY: Is it easy to get acquitted under Thai justice or is there a presumption of, that you are not innocent?

ALAN MORISON: Well that's the real pain . We've been treated as criminals for 18 months. Having your fingerprints taken, and having your passports taken is an indication of your guilt. I mean you are guilty here until you are proven innocent. So, it's been a real struggle and, and during that time just a little while back, Chutima's father and my father both died within two days of each other and that's when the real emotional drain came home.

PAUL BARRY: Well, Alan, I'm sure there's a lot of people in Australia who wish you the best of luck. We certainly do. We'll watch the case and I hope that it works out right for you, that you win.

— Interview with Alan Morison, Journalist, 17th July, 2015