<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: &quot;Tahoma&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">On Feb 13, Aree Jiworarak, Director of the Information Technology Supervision Office under the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, sent e-mails to executives of internet service providers (ISPs), saying that the Office had found there was a publication disseminated on the internet called the &lsquo;Red Siam Manifesto&rsquo; which affected national security.</span></p>

<p>Army Air Defense soldiers complained to the PM and Defence Minister that their commander&rsquo;s order to start work at 8 am by lining up to sing the national anthem caused trouble to their personal daily routines, especially sending their children to school.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%">On Feb 11, Kamnoon Sidhisamarn, an appointed senator, said in an ASTV programme that Giles Ji Ungpakorn&rsquo;s release of his &lsquo;Red Siam manifesto&rsquo; on Feb 9, attacking the monarchy and Thai people who regard the King as their Father, was considered rebellion, as he wanted Thailand to become a republic with all public positions elected.<strong></strong></span></p>

<p>The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has closely followed with growing concern the increasing number of lese-majesty cases being filed against people from all walks of life in Thailand for written comments on the royal family. At present, dozens of persons are known to be facing charges or have already been convicted of the offence, which is the equivalent of treason against the crown. They include citizens of Thailand and foreigners, journalists and academics, bloggers and web board discussants. At least two are presently imprisoned and another has fled abroad, rightly fearing that he would not obtain a fair trial.</p>

<p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: &quot;Tahoma&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">Giles Ji Ungpakorn&rsquo;s flight and Red Siam manifesto have been a bombshell.<span>&nbsp; </span>Political foes are quick to grab the opportunity to make this work to their advantage.<span>&nbsp; </span>The fact that Ji appeared on the red-shirt stage at the end of last month and some thousand academics and others signed his petition to abolish the l&egrave;se majest&eacute; law seem to have fallen perfectly into the hands of the right-wing PAD who have long claimed there is a conspiracy against the throne.<span>&nbsp; </span>Nidhi Eowsriwong, who has been critical of the PAD, and has been a target of abuse from the PAD stage, happens to be the first name on Ji&rsquo;s petition list.<span>&nbsp; </span>He and his former colleagues at Midnight University are among the first who have been targeted in this lethal fray.</span></p>

<p><font><font color="#000000">Early on February 8, Thai security forces searched the office of a Thai human rights organization called the Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP) in the southern province of Pattani. Twenty members of the police and military woke two young volunteers and then spent three hours searching the office, including several computers.</font></font></p>

<p> Reporters Without Borders is organising a cyber-demonstration on the Internet on 9 February to call for the release of Australian writer <strong>Harry Nicolaides</strong>, who is serving a three-year prison sentence on a lese majeste charge for referring briefly to the monarchy in a novel set in Thailand. He has been held since 31 August 2008 in Bangkok.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span>Ministry of Information and Communications Technology has officially set up an operations centre to monitor websites around the clock.<span> </span>Nearly 5,000 web pages have been found to be offensive, mostly to the throne.</span></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Amnesty International Australia has joined with 93 other non-government organisations, which work on behalf of refugees and migrants in the Asia-Pacific, to condemn human rights violations committed recently against members of the Rohingya minority and Bangladeshi migrants. </font> <font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><br /> </font></p>

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%">A human rights activist sent a letter expressing strong disapproval of a cartoon in the newspaper&rsquo;s &lsquo;Stephff&rsquo;s View&rsquo; for its racist mocking of the refugees.<span> </span>Interestingly, the cartoonist manages to mock the usual suspect, Thaksin, as well.<span> </span>Here is the cartoon, and the unpublished letter to the Nation.</span></p>

<p>BANGKOK (AFP) &mdash; Frustrated with what she saw as corporate influence and political bias in Thailand&#39;s print media, Chiranuch Premchaiporn helped launch a news website in 2004 to try and filter out the spin.</p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt">On January 27,2009, the 3^rd marine division of the Thai Navy arrested 78 Rohingya boat people near the southwestern area of Surin Island in the Andaman sea region.<span> </span>The men, ranging from 14-45 years old, were found beaten and wounded.<span> </span>The officers pulled the boat ashore to provide first aid before carrying out the process of deportation.<span> </span>It is quite evident that most of them were injured by Burmese soldiers</span></font></p>