<p>JAKARTA, May 3 &ndash; ASEAN policies are at odds with the needs and desires of the majority of people in Southeast Asia, making urgent the need to advance peoples&rsquo; alternatives, said a panel of speakers at this year&rsquo;s ASEAN Civil Society Conference / ASEAN People&rsquo;s Forum (ACSC/APF). </p>

<p>Jakarta, May 3 &ndash; The first plenary session on the first day of the 2011 ASEAN Peoples&rsquo; Forum/ASEAN Civil Society Conference (APF/ACSC) focused on the trends and challenges towards a &lsquo;people-centered&rsquo; ASEAN. Indonesia&rsquo;s former Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr. Nur Hassan Wirajuda and Focus on the Global South&rsquo;s Senior Associate Ms. Jenina Joy Chavez shared their views on the process to a more people-centered ASEAN. Points made will serve as food for thought for further discussions and deeper analysis during the workshops scheduled later on this week.</p>

<p>Deep distrust towards the less educated and rural poor is prevalent among the middle class and elite who, to the detriment of society as a whole, fail to see themselves as a big part of the problem, especially the absence of genuine democracy and equality in Thailand.</p>

<p>The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) news organisation is marking World Press Freedom Day on 3 May with the launch of a campaign to free its 17 jailed video journalists (VJs), all of whom are serving lengthy sentences in prisons across the country.</p>

<p>The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) today joins the international community in commemorating World Press Freedom Day. Our solidarity on this important date comes in the context of the situations of the countries in Asia where members of the press continue to be under attack.&nbsp; These attacks on press freedom further undermine the enjoyment of freedom of expression and access to information by the people and hinder the process of democratization in Asia.</p>

<p><strong>Middle East: predators of press freedom start to topple</strong></p> <p>The kingpins of repressive machinery, political leaders of regimes hostile to civil liberties and direct organizers of campaigns of violence against journalists &ndash; they are the predators of press freedom. They prey on the media.</p> <p>See all the predators (http://en.rsf.org/predators,21.html)</p>

<p><strong>An Open Letter from the Asian Human Rights Commission to the Minister of Justice, Thailand </strong></p> <p>Thank you for your letter of <a href="http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/pdf/AHRC-OLT-004-2011-01.pdf">15 March 2011</a> (No. 0808/1379) to the staff of the Urgent Appeals Programme, Asian Human Rights Commission, concerning the case of Somchai Neelaphaijit, a human rights lawyer whom police abducted from his car on 12 March 2004 at a time that he was representing clients whom police had tortured, and whose case remains unsolved and whose whereabouts are unknown to the present day.</p>

<p>The Vice-Chair of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Nurkholis, today called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to support a UN investigation into business and human rights violations in Burma. Mr. Nurkholis made his statement as a member of the experts panel at regional civil society&rsquo;s first Public Hearing on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Human Rights in ASEAN held in Jakarta today.</p>

<p>Reporters Without Borders is concerned about the fate of Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, editor of the magazine Voice of Thaksin, who was arrested by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) on 30 April and was placed in pre-trial custody today by a Bangkok criminal court on a charge of l&egrave;se-majest&eacute;. A request for release on bail was rejected.</p>

<p>(Washington - May 2, 2011) The number of people worldwide with access to free and independent media declined to its lowest level in over a decade, according a Freedom House study released today. The report, <em>Freedom of the Press 2011: A Global Survey of Media Independence, </em>found that a number of key countries&mdash;including Egypt, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and Ukraine&mdash;experienced significant declines, producing a global landscape in which only one in six people live in countries with a press that is designated Free.</p>

<p>Red Power magazine editor Somyos Prueksakasemsuk was arrested yesterday afternoon for alleged lese majeste, after trying to leave the Kingdom on a fund-raising tour to Cambodia.</p>

<p>BBC World News issued a report on the 25th April 2011 that addressed the issue of human trafficking and exploitation of labour carried out by organised networks and syndicates that illegally smuggle and deceive thousands of migrant workers from Myanmar to work in the Thai fishing industry, including in sea fisheries (fishermen) and associated enterprises (workers in seafood packaging and processing factories). This report alleged that on arrival in Thailand, such workers are sold to brokers and detained and then they are also often further sold to fishing boat owners.</p>