<p>(New York) - The government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva largely failed to fulfill its pledges to make human rights a priority, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2010.</p>

<p>Reiterating its appeal to King Bhumibol Adulyadej to pardon nine bloggers (see the 4 December press release: http://www.rsf.org/King-asked-to-pardon-Internet.html), Reporters Without Borders today published a letter written by one of the jailed bloggers, Suwicha Thakor, from prison.</p>

<p>The cloud of a political showdown between the red shirts and the government and its backers, looms over us. It is understandable then that the layman feels helpless and fears bloodshed, anarchy, coup, civil war, economic ruin - or all of the above at this stage.</p>

<p>Thailand should reverse its recent backward slide in respect for freedom of expression, as illustrated by the sharp increase over the past ten months in cases under the lese majeste law.</p>

<p>The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) expresses grave concern&nbsp;over the Thai military's attempts to suppress the news coverage of&nbsp;its deportation of 4,000 Hmong refugees from their camp in&nbsp;Thailand's northern province of Petchabun in December 2009.</p>

<p>Deploying ultra-royalist and xenophobic discourses as political tools&nbsp;to discredit and crush political opponents is not a new tactic in&nbsp;Thailand. But it has recently become more widespread. Now, even some&nbsp;red-shirt media groups, long accused by the yellow-shirt People's&nbsp;Alliance for Democracy (PAD) of being anti-royalist, are playing the&nbsp;ultra-royalist card too.</p>

<p>On 20th January (or in just 8 working days) the end of the &ldquo;permission to stay and work in Thailand for one year, pending deportation&rdquo; for 61, 543 Burmese, Cambodian and Laotian migrants who &ldquo;illegally&rdquo; entered the country will arrive. As the first migrant work permit renewal deadline of the year it is somewhat different to past deadlines however. For if any of these workers refuse to go through the Royal Thai Government&rsquo;s (RTG) Nationality Verification (NV) process, policy announcements suggest they will be deported. Whether deportation starts then or on 28th February (the &ldquo;final&rdquo; deadline to agree to NV or be deported for the other million or so registered migrants whose work permits expire on that day) remains unclear.&nbsp;</p>

<p>(Mizzima News/IFEX) - As of January 2010, all films and videos shot at&nbsp;locations associated with the Burmese Railways have to be submitted to the&nbsp;Myanmar Rail Film and Video Scrutiny Board, a senior Rail Ministry official&nbsp;said.</p>

<p>Marwaan Macan-Markar, president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of&nbsp;Thailand, has denied being forced by the government to withdraw&nbsp;permission for the red shirts to hold a symposium at the clubhouse.</p>

<p>German freelance photographer Nick Nostitz is no stranger to either the red-shirt or the yellow-shirt political rallies. In fact, he stands out as having the most detailed photographic records of Thai political turmoil over the past few years and his 160-page photo book &quot;Red VS Yellow, Volume 1: Thailand's Crisis of Identity&quot;, published earlier this year by White Lotus, is testimony to that.</p>

<p>What is certain about the upcoming major political protest by the red-shirt Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship (DAAD) members is the political uncertainty it will engender. Their announced goal is to finally dislodge from power the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, which they deem as not legitimate, after their failed major attempt in April 2009. Asking top DAAD leaders about the likelihood of achieving their objective this time is not likely to gain accurate answers as whatever they say will be premeditated and calculated.</p>

<p><strong>Press freedom in 2009</strong></p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;76 &nbsp; &nbsp;journalists killed (60 in 2008)</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;33 &nbsp; &nbsp;journalists kidnapped</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;573 &nbsp; &nbsp;journalists arrested</p> <p>1456 &nbsp; &nbsp;physically assaulted</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;570 &nbsp; &nbsp;media censored&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;157 &nbsp; &nbsp;journalists fled their countries</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;1 &nbsp; &nbsp;blogger died in prison &nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;151 &nbsp; &nbsp;bloggers and cyber-dissidents arrested&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;61 &nbsp; &nbsp;physically assaulted</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;60 &nbsp; &nbsp;countries affected by online censorship</p>