BANGKOK -- Thai Airways International PLC said on Monday it banned distribution of the far eastern economic review on flights due to a report in the magazine of strained relations between Thailand's King and prime minister. An airline spokeswoman told Reuters Thai Airways would no longer provide customers copies of the Hong Kong-based magazine on flights after an article printed in the weekly's January 10 issue.

"We have been ordered not to carry the magazine on all flights," the spokeswoman said. "Senior executives are now in a meeting discussing various issues now, including this one."

A government spokeswoman on Monday told Reuters lawyers working for Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra were looking at the report, but denied a report in one local newspaper that legal action was being planned.

"We did not say that we would take legal action against the magazine, but we are checking the accuracy of the article, and if we find any inaccuracy we would come up with some other measures for them to correct it," said Nahathai Tiewpaingam.

Shawn Crispin, the magazine's Bangkok Bureau Chief, told reuters the magazine had not been officially contacted by government agencies.

"The official statement is we stand by the story," he said.

The article in the review commented on King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday speech in early December in which the monarch said Thailand was facing a crisis. The king's speech was widely interpreted as being critical of the prime minister.

Thailand has strict laws on what can be printed or said about the king and the royal family.