"Though a member of the family is linked to the deal, the plaintiff is not directly involved in the transaction, hence not an injured party, and there is no evidence that his reputation has been tarnished by the defendant's comments," the court said in the verdict.

Sonthi, in comments in his paper Phujadkarn and on the Manager website, was critical of the deal. He labelled it as a sham committed by the Shinawatra and Damapong families.

Sondhi attacked ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra's family members and his Damapong in-laws for selling the telecom business to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.

As plaintiff, Vice Admiral Kiartisak Damapong sued Sondhi and his Manager Grop for defaming his family.

In its ruling, the court said testimony from witnesses called by the prosecution and the defence concurred that news reports circulated by Sondhi's media outlets were within journalist's duties to inform the public about.

Further, all reports cited as evidence by the disputed parties made no mention about the plaintiff. Nor could they be construed as an individual attack.

Key prosecution witnesses testified that they did not view Sondhi's comments as aimed at the plaintiff, therefore the court had no reason to suspect defamation, it said, before ruling in favour of the defendant.

After the verdict session, Sondhi said he would rely on the acquittal ruling to convince public prosecutors to drop his another libel case filed by Chatchai Damapong, who acts on the family's behalf similar to Kiartisak. He suspected certain people may be funding the family's legal moves.