<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; font-family: Times New Roman; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; min-height: 18px"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) is pleased to announce two new, easy, legal tools for circumventing Internet censorship.</font></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><font color="#000000">506 workers at Canadoil Asia Thai plant are picketing outside the factory gate since the company refused to have dialogue with the union and the workers decided to take strike action from 22 January.<span>&nbsp; </span></font></font></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">A South Korean blogger in custody since January 7, charged with spreading false information online, should be set free, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. </font></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">We write to you to raise our serious concern about the plight of the Rohingyas, a Muslim minority from Rakhine State, western Myanmar. Thousands of Rohingyas have fled in recent months on boats sailing for Thailand and Malaysia, and hundreds are missing, feared drowned. Their situation has reached a critical stage over the last two months, as the Thai military have forcibly expelled approximately 1,000 Rohingyas arriving in southwest Thailand by boat, while the Indian and Indonesian authorities have rescued hundreds of them.</font></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Reporters Without Borders condemns yesterday&#39;s decision by the Thai government to ban distribution of the 22 January issue of the London-based <em>Economist</em><a href="http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12992577" target="_blank">http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12992577</a>) entitled &quot;The problem with Harry&quot; about the three-year jail sentence imposed on Australian writer <strong>Harry Nicolaides</strong> on a lese majeste charge.&nbsp; </font></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">The Thai Senate announced on January 23 that it formed a committee that will monitor violations of l&egrave;se majest&eacute; and other related laws that protect the kingdom&#39;s monarchy, media reports said.</font></p>

<p><font size="2">Newly-installed Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva not only has to institute reforms in the Thai media: He also has to accomplish this task without widening further the cracks within the country&#39;s political landscape.</font></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Reporters Without Borders condemns the three-year prison sentence which Australian writer </font><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><strong>Harry Nicolaides</strong></font><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"> received today from the Bangkok criminal court on a charge of lese majeste under article 112 of the criminal code for briefly alluding in a novel to the way King Bhumipol&#39;s son treated one of his mistresses. Nicolaides pleaded guilty and asked the court to show clemency. </font></p>

<p><font size="2">Thailand&#39;s Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga said on 19 January that websites containing information considered as lese majeste are increasing, media reports said.</font></p>

<p><font size="2">The months ahead will hold much peril and uncertainty for members of the press in Southeast Asia. The years 2009 and 2010 will be highly charged, for starters, anticipating national election seasons for most countries in the region. Even without the chaos and violence attendant to electoral exercises in countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma, the unpredictability of the contests and the inevitability of uncertainty will give the region&#39;s journalists not only compelling stories and issues to follow, but also dangerous times and situations to navigate.</font></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">A Thai court sentenced an Australian author to three years&#39; imprisonment for insulting a member of the royal family, media reports said.</font></p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Reporters Without Borders congratulates Carol Bartz for her 13 January 2009 appointment as Yahoo!&#39;s new CEO, replacing Jerry Yang. Secretary-general Jean-Fran&ccedil;ois Julliard seized the opportunity to write to Bartz to express the organisation&#39;s concerns about Yahoo!&#39;s policies in China, mentioning the case of journalist Shi Tao of the &quot;Dangdai Shang Bao&quot; business daily.</font></p>