<p><span>On Feb 24, </span><span>participants in a seminar in Pattani made a call to collect signatures of people in the southern border provinces to revoke the laws that they said were being misused by the authorities to abuse power and torture people in custody.</span></p>

<p><span>On </span><span>Feb 16, the Muslim Lawyers Centre told a seminar that during the past few years it had received hundreds of complaints from people in the three southern border provinces including 59 cases of torture during custody in the past eight months. </span></p>

<p>Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM), Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), and Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) condemn the Malaysian government for its usage of brute force without hesitation against peaceful assemblies once again.<br /> </p><p style="margin: 0.11cm -0.58cm 0cm -1.11cm" align="justify">&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;As an independent, nongovernmental organization dedicated to defending<br />press freedom worldwide, we strongly urge you to return Thailand to the<br />path of press freedom and allow all journalists to do their jobs free of<br />intimidation, harassment, and censorship.</p>

<p>The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the raid on the Rung Roj Wittaya school by police and military forces on 5 February 2008 that led to the arrest and detention of two teachers, one of whom was tortured by the authorities.</p>

<p>Thailand report: The army, which took power in a coup in September 2006, provided guarantees for press freedom while at the same time hounding media close to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The new Constitution, adopted in August 2007, guaranteed free expression, but a new security law could turn out to be dangerous. Most cases of censorship involved the Internet.</p>

<p><span>The recent arrest of a police captain and<span> other anti-drug squad officers</span><span> on allegations of serious crimes and human rights violations gives the new Thai government an opportunity to show that it can hold abusers to account, Human Rights Watch said today.</span></span></p>

<p>On 30 January 2008, the Cambodian Association for the Protection of<br />Journalists (CAPJ) held a meeting with Information Minister Khieu Kanharith<br />and journalists to present its report on the state of press freedom in the<br />country in 2007.</p>

<p>A three-level approach, drawing on the respective strengths of the UN, the country&#39;s neighbours and the wider international community, is needed to promote change in Burma/Myanmar.</p>

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">On Jan 28, the anti-coup groups Pollamueng Piwattana and Women for Democracy lodged a complaint at the Administrative Court against the government's executive decree that raises the salaries of privy councillors and statesmen.</span></p>

<p><span>On Jan 27, </span><span>operating under Martial Law, Special Forces Unit 11 searched a dormitory and arrested 7 students of Rajabhat University and the Physical Science Institute in Yala, when they were about to join a football game.</span></p>

<p><span>Metropolitan Police sent a letter dated Jan 18, 2008, to </span><span>the Rector of Thammasat University, seeking his cooperation to withhold sales of &lsquo;A Coup for the Rich'</span><span><strong> </strong></span><span>by Giles Ungphakorn in the university's book centre. The police claim that &lsquo;the book contains passages containing l&egrave;se majest&eacute; offences, and may lead the Thai people to misunderstand the King'.</span></p>