As a commission specially created by the Thai government will be investigating the violent clashes between the security forces and Red Shirts in April and May 2010, Reporters Without Borders is releasing a report on 10 serious violations of press freedom and the safety of journalists.

Contrary to popular opinion, I believe that the red-shirts and the yellow-shirts have a great deal in common, far more than any differences that might ostensibly set them apart. Both camps are nationalistic, patriarchal, pro-military, capitalist, and consumerist. Both demonstrate a deep subservience to the bearers of wealth and power, exhibit a fundamental intolerance in both thought and deed, and exploit totally misconceived notions of democracy and human rights, notions that have already been fatally distorted by their leaders.

Thailand's Cabinet approved on 15 June 2010 the creation of an online crime agency that will go after violators of the Kingdom's lèse majesté law, media reports said.

Agence France-Presse quoted the government as saying that the Bureau of Prevention and Eradication of Computer Crime was established to protect the royal family.

"The monarchy is crucial for Thai national security because it is an institution that unifies the entire nation," government spokesman Watchara Kanikar said.

(7 May 2010) Thai media groups and members of civil society agreed in the recently concluded World Press Freedom Day observance in Bangkok that fair and responsible reporting is crucial in addressing the political crisis in the kingdom.

On the morning of 5 May, www.prachatai.net was blocked by the CRES.  The page was redirected to http://58.97.5.29/www.capothai.org, with the message: Access is temporarily suspended, as ordered by the CRES under the 2005 Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situations.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, May 3, 2010 - On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day (3 May) AMARC, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, calls on governments and international agencies to respect the communication rights of communities struck by disaster and to recognise the vital role of community media in disaster response and reconstruction.

The list of Predators of Press Freedom, released each year on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, has 40 names this year – 40 politicians, government officials, religious leaders, militias and criminal organisations that cannot stand the press, treat it as an enemy and directly attack journalists. They are powerful, dangerous, violent and above the law.

The Facebook fan page of independent Thai online news site Prachatai.com was blocked today [28 April] by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), along with two other websites in the aftermath of the clash between security forces and Red Shirt protesters on 27 April, according to Chiranuch Premchaiporn, Prachatai's executive director. The fan page has 5,798 fans.

The Civil Court dismissed a case brought by Prachatai against the government within 5 hours of the complaint being filed, without examination of witnesses.

Statement from Former Thai Senators (2000-2006)*, “Demanding the government to stop blocking media channels and using the state-run media to present one-sided information on the crackdown of the demonstration on April 10, 2010”

A new red-shirt radio station went on air yesterday in the Rajprasong intersection protest-site area, in a move to counter the continued shutting down of red-shirt media by the government under emergency rule.

"They should allow us to criticise [the government], but instead they shut our ears and eyes," Chinawat Haboonpak, a red-shirt leader told the crowd at the intersection yesterday morning. "We ask for just one television channel, but they have taken it away from us and shut our ears and eyes again."

ASTV-Manager has resigned from the board of the Thai Journalist Association in protest after the media body released a statement opposing the government’s closure of the red shirt People Channel or PTV.  Its representative said the red-shirt TV should be closed because it is not loyal to the monarchy, unlike ASTV which adheres to what is right and just.

Red-shirt media and those identified as sympathetic to red-shirt protesters suffered heavy censorship yesterday as the government exercised its power under the emergency decree to cut communication lines among the red shirts, leaving society with only what the state views as correct and appropriate.

It was a bid to reduce the crowd - but it invited more red shirts to the main protest venue at Rajprasong intersection and elsewhere.

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) expresses concern over the declaration of a State of Emergency in Bangkok, particularly in how the broad powers granted the military under such a declaration could render the free press and freedom of expression vulnerable to political and security objectives.

The conflict today is partly the result of the atrocious media, esp TV. The government's "interference" is not the only reason to blame. It is bad enough that the government have the full control of one TV channel with outcries only from a fraction of media professionals and none from media professional bodies. But the media professionals at major newspapers and other TV channels including the ThaiPBS do it out of their own biases and horrible lack of professionalism. The government may take some minutes to tell a lie live on air.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of independent Thai online news portal Prachatai, was granted bail this afternoon after the prosecutors eventually filed a lawsuit against her under Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act.

Amidst the political polarization that has created deep-rooted divisions in Thai society, the mass media is one factor that has difficulty in denying any responsibility and has been asked serious questions about its role and how it has performed its duty by people who have chosen political sides. At the same time, new media has appeared and individuals’ preferences in following the news change according to their political stance and access to technology.  Pravit Rojanaphruk, senior journalist at The Nation, is one mainstream journalist who has long asked questions about his own professional conduct and criticized the media culture.  Prachatai talked to him on the day when every single branch of the media gave space to expressing the importance of the profession, especially the duty of the media in the run-up to an eye-catching day in Thai politics, the day of the red shirt rally on 12 March.

BANGKOK, Mar 11 — Anyone who is still trying to look for neutrality or balance in the Thai media in these days of political ferment, ahead of large anti-government protests expected in the capital, has a pretty tough job.

A Radio Free Asia (RFA) reporter was charged with disinformation for broadcasting a report on a dispute between a Cham Muslim community leader and members of his mosque, media reports said.

A blog is a New Media tool that started many years ago.  It may be a diary expressing a person’s thoughts or a communications space for a social movement, depending on what the user wants it to be.  In some countries they have been very effective.