<p>In Thailand, reality and its acknowledgement have a way of being supplanted by fiction and denial. </p> <p>Take for instance the gathering of some 10,000 red shirts last Sunday at Rajprasong intersection to mark the fourth anniversary of the 2006 coup and the fourth month since the military cracked down on the movement.</p> <p>The one thing conspicuously missing from media coverage was the angry messages emblazoned on the corrugated iron wall outside CentralWorld, which is being rebuilt after the red shirts allegedly burned it down in the aftermath of the crackdown.</p>

<p>Friday 24 September 2010, 9.30 am. The Criminal Court is scheduled to read the verdict of Somchai Neelapaijit reached by the Appeal Court.</p> <p><strong>Background</strong></p> <p>After seven months of court hearings into the disappearance of Mr. Somchai from August 2005 onward on the offences regarding coercion and robber, the Bangkok Criminal Court read out the verdict in Black Case no. 1952/2547 and Red Case no. Or 4/2549 on 12 January 2006. In sum, the Court holds that:</p>

<p>(Hanoi&nbsp; -14 September 2010) - Tobacco control and other health advocates from no less than 15 countries around the Southeast Asian and Western Pacific regions, North America and Europe are in Hanoi, Vietnam today to September 16, 2010 for a regional workshop to strengthen capacity for health promotion and tobacco control through sustainable funding mechanisms such as dedicated tobacco taxes.</p>

<p>(11 Sept) The demands of the 1,000 striking workers at the Dechanpanich Fishing Net Factory in Khon Kaen continue to fall on deaf ears.</p>

<p>Debating Vietnam's human rights record under its ASEAN Chairmanship is more than ever impossible</p> <p>Paris, 12 September 2010: The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) announced today that it has been under pressure by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cancel a press conference on human rights in Vietnam, organized by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR).<br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p>(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of Pham Minh Hoang, a blogger with French nationality who teaches mathematics at the Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic School. He has been held incommunicado since his arrest on 13 August 2010 for allegedly violating article 79 of the criminal code, which refers to attempts to overthrow the government.</p>

<p>Holding a temporary passport has given no protection of the rights of Burmese workers at the Dechapanich Fishing Net Factory in Khon Kaen. The workers have to work one and a half hours free every day from 5.00pm to 6.30pm to pay off the cost of the passport and are not allowed to maintain possession of their passports.&nbsp; When six workers were fired for taking more than three days leave a month, they demanded the return of their personal documents, and found that the word &ldquo;cancel&rdquo; had been casually written next to their visa.</p>

<p>In a sign of continued resistance, red-shirt print media is starting to lift its head again, with at least four publications now available in some parts of Bangkok and beyond. However, the government appears determined to suppress them, or at least stifle the most vocal ones.</p> <p>At press time yesterday, Red Power magazine editor Somyos Phrueksakasemsuk had reportedly gone into hiding. Somyos' colleague Sriatsara Titali told this writer yesterday that the editor was scheduled to speak at a symposium on the future of the media on Wednesday afternoon in Lat Phrao.</p>

<p>An Australian man deported from Thailand after supporting anti-government Red Shirt protesters says he was beaten in prison and feared the Thai government would plant drugs on him.</p>

<p>With just two months to go to the general elections that the military government plans to hold on 7 November, there are still no grounds for thinking that the Burmese and foreign media will be able to cover the campaign and polling freely. Prior censorship remains in effect and that rules out any possibility of a democratic election. Without press freedom, the election will just be a sham.</p>

<p>With the mainstream media mostly giving the National Reform Committee a blank cheque in terms of soft PR and uncritical reporting of its activities, it has been alternative media outlets like prachatai.com that have voiced criticism. </p> <p>Two members of the reform committee - noted historian Nidhi Eoseewong and scholar-monk Venerable Phra Paisarn Visalo - recently came under fire on the news website.</p>

<p>Amnesty International is calling on the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution ensuring the urgent establishment of an international commission of inquiry into serious human rights violations committed in Myanmar, including crimes against humanity and possible war crimes. </p>