<p>Thailand is again in frenzy over coup rumors, perpetuated mostly by anti-government Red Shirts who need a reason to protest and by a media machine that needs a story. The top generals have denied that anything is amiss, words that mean little since they said the same thing before ousting former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Thai police and soldiers conducted a surprise raid on the Karen&nbsp;Information Centre (KIC) based in the Thai border town of Mae Sot&nbsp;on 4 February 2010.</p>

<p>The Thai government has decided to put on hold its plan to send back the Karen refugees to the landmined Burmese soil, probably due to much pressure from international community. Here are interviews with the refugees by the Karen Human Rights Group on why they do not wish to be 'voluntarily repatriated' by the Thai Government.</p>

<p>The Interior Ministry's latest decision to introduce its own cable-television channel - dubbed 'blue-shirt television' by the media for its close association with Bhum Jai Thai Party kingmaker Newin Chidchob - will further exacerbate the already tense political situation and is a reminder of how the government still thinks crude propaganda works.</p>

<p>(Bangkok, 3 February 2010) The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), a membership-based organisation representing 46 human rights NGOs across Asia, expresses its grave concern over the present political repression and human rights abuse in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the presidential elections. All political actors in the country must take immediate steps to ensure due process and respect for democratic norms and human rights in Sri Lanka.</p>

<p>As a fan of Kdrama, indelibly touched like so many others in 2002 who would stop in at some public place or restaurant in South Korea hooked on catching episodes of Winter Sonata while it was being broadcast, I turn to readers and fellow fans to help make sense of what is going on in South Korea.</p>

<p>Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association condemn the 13-year jail sentence passed on journalist <strong>Ngwe Soe Lin</strong> by a special court inside Rangoon&rsquo;s Insein prison on 27 January. He is the second video reporter for a Burmese exile radio and TV station based in Oslo to be convicted in the space of a month.</p>

<p>Leaders of both the red- and yellow-shirt movements appear to have succumbed, in their self-absorbed way, to thinking of themselves as out-of-this-world characters - often to comic effect. Some time ago, the yellow-shirt People's Alliance for Democracy supremo Sondhi Limthongkul dressed all in white like some holy man, splashed his PAD followers with what appeared to be holy water, like that dispensed by Buddhist monks. That was at the height of the PAD's seizure of Government House.</p>

<p>BANGKOK, Jan 24 (TNA) -- Defending his government over recent charges by New York-based <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/1585">Human Rights Watch</a> that Thailand violated several human rights principles last year, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Sunday that some information in the NGO&rsquo;s report might contain inaccuracies.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Reading the latest and possibly last letter from jail from convicted lese majeste and computer crime law offender Suwicha Thakor dated January first 2010 was a sobering experience. The letter reflects Suwicha's lack of faith on Thai mainstream media which do not care to put his side of the story to the public. So instead, Suwicha only mentioned in his Thai-language letter, the left-leaning not-for-profit prachatai.com online newspaper which duly published his letter on Wednesday.</p>

<p>The massacre of 31 journalists in Maguindanao, the Philippines, on 23 November 2009, most graphically illustrates the violence and impunity that threaten journalists not only in the Philippines, but throughout the region.</p>

<p>Google's promise to end its self-censorship in China, a daring response to a Chinese cyber attack, may have brought the shine back to the search giant's &quot;Don't Be Evil&quot; ethos. But Google is still blocking certain content in other countries at the demand of their governments. The company won't comment on whether it plans to change those censorship schemes.</p>