<p>Maria Ressa talks press freedom, threats against journalists, disinformation network, and calls for collaboration in her keynote address at the 2019 Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Hamburg, Germany.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The two Reuters journalists jailed for their reporting on a massacre of the Rohingya people have been released from prison after an amnesty order from President Win Myint.</p>

<p>Thailand has been ranked 136th in Reporters Without Borders (RSF)&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://rsf.org/en/2019-world-press-freedom-index-cycle-fear">2019 World Press Freedom Index</a>, four&nbsp;places above its 2018 ranking, but is still classified as being in a &ldquo;difficult situation.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Al Jazeera&rsquo;s and the BBC&#39;s news broadcast on True Visions cable TV momentarily stopped on 7 and 8 March. It is currently not confirmed which story was cut.</p>

<div>Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Thai authorities to abandon any plan to prosecute Pravit Rojanaphruk, a well-known journalist and free speech advocate who is to be questioned by police tomorrow about a complaint accusing him of sedition in five Facebook posts.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>A leading critic of Thailand’s military junta and its lèse-majesté law, Pravit could face a possible 20-year jail sentence if prosecuted on a sedition charge under article 116 of the criminal code as a result of the complaint brought against him by a police lieutenant-colonel.</div> <div>&nbsp; </div>

<p dir="ltr">The police have accused a veteran journalist known for his anti-junta stand of sedition over Facebook posts critical of the junta. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>On 1 August 2017, Pravit Rojanaphruk, a senior reporter at <a href="http://www.khaosodenglish.com">Khaosod English</a>, who has consistently criticised Thailand’s junta and the lèse majesté law, posted on his Facebook account that the Technology Crime Suppression Division accused him of violation of Article 116 of the Criminal Code, the sedition law. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>

<p>On this World Media Press Freedom Day, the professional membership of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand stands by its colleagues in Thailand's domestic media as they struggle to maintain professional standards and editorial independence in particularly challenging times.<br /><br />The National Reform Steering Assembly's draft Bill on the Protection of Media Rights lumps all 'media' together indiscriminately and misguidedly.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The military-appointed National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) is proposing a bill that will create a media regulatory body to impose additional regulations for the media in Thailand.</p> <p>The bill on the “Protection of Media Rights and Freedom, Ethics and Professional Standards” is being vetted by the NRSA Subcommittee on Mass Media Communication, which presented the proposed law to journalist and media groups two weeks ago.</p>

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<p>A Provincial Court has freed a Prachatai journalist and pro-democracy activists arrested over campaign leaflets for the draft charter referendum. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>The Provincial Court of Ratchaburi Province on Monday afternoon, 11 July 2016, granted permission to the police to detain Taweeesak Kerdpoka, a Prachatai journalist, three anti-junta NDM activists, Pakorn Areekul, Anucha Rungmorakot and Anan Loked, and Phanuwat Songsawadchai, a student activist from Maejo University, Phrae campus.</p> <p>However, at around 4:30 pm the court granted bail for each of the five for 140,000 baht.</p>