<p>Statement from Former Thai Senators (2000-2006)*,&nbsp;&ldquo;Demanding the government to stop blocking media channels and using the state-run media to present one-sided information on the crackdown of the demonstration on April 10, 2010&rdquo;</p>

<p>On 17 April, Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd, spokesperson for the Army and the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES), said that the authorities had retrieved only vehicles, but had yet to be handed weapons which had been seized by the red shirts.&nbsp; He was concerned that agents provocateurs would use those weapons to put the blame on both the authorities and the red shirts.</p>

<p>A new red-shirt radio station went on air yesterday in the Rajprasong intersection protest-site area, in a move to counter the continued shutting down of red-shirt media by the government under emergency rule.</p> <p>&quot;They should allow us to criticise [the government], but instead they shut our ears and eyes,&quot; Chinawat Haboonpak, a red-shirt leader told the crowd at the intersection yesterday morning. &quot;We ask for just one television channel, but they have taken it away from us and shut our ears and eyes again.&quot;</p>

<p>The Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation has ordered the MICT to close 190 websites, of which over 60% are claimed to be politically seditious.&nbsp; Since the red shirt protests started, the MICT has ordered the blocking of about 500 URLs per day on average.</p>

<p>On 16 April, Athikhom Sapchang, a taxi driver, made a complaint with the press at the red shirts&rsquo; Rajprasong rally site that after he had joined other red shirts in helping red-shirt leaders escape the authorities&rsquo; attempted round up at the SC Park Hotel, he left the scene and drove around to look for passengers.&nbsp; When he arrived at Soi Bang Bua in Bang Khen, he found a group of people setting up a checkpoint at the entrance of the Soi.</p>

<p>The New Politics Party has urged the government to declare Martial Law, arrest the leaders of the &lsquo;terrorists and rebels&rsquo;, and remove Deputy PM Suthep, the Defence Minister and the Army Chief from office.&nbsp; There should be no elections until the terrorists are suppressed.&nbsp; The terrorism in Bangkok is connected to international terrorism and Thaksin is connected to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Suriyasai said.</p>

<p>Some red-shirt radio stations have continued broadcasting despite orders nearly a week ago to censor and shut them down, thanks to loyal listeners, sympathisers and supportive communities coming to their defence. </p>

<p><em>(A shortened version by Prachatai English)</em></p> <p>After the Saturday clashes, the red shirts are confident that they have gained the upper hand over the government; so they do not bother to negotiate or give a thought for the common good.&nbsp; They have only one goal: seizing the country, changing the form of government and overthrowing the monarchy.</p>

<p>Anger, anxiety and fearless defiance filled the air as tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters at the Rajprasong intersection geared up for an all-out battle with the government's security forces.</p> <p>They learned in the early afternoon that their fellow protesters had clashed with soldiers at the other main protest site along Rajdamnoen Avenue and Phan Fa Bridge. By early evening, at least 83 had been injured.</p>

<p>A Japanese journalist working for Reuters was killed while a&nbsp;freelance photographer was injured when Red Shirt protesters and&nbsp;police-military units battled in Bangkok on 10 April 2010, media&nbsp;reports said.</p> <p>Reuters said its TV cameraman, Hiro Muramoto, 43 years old, died&nbsp;from a bullet wound in the chest. He was pronounced dead on arrival&nbsp;at Klang Hospital in Bangkok.</p>

<p>ASTV-Manager has resigned from the board of the Thai Journalist Association in protest after the media body released a statement opposing the government&rsquo;s closure of the red shirt People Channel or PTV. &nbsp;Its representative said the red-shirt TV should be closed because it is not loyal to the monarchy, unlike ASTV which adheres to what is right and just.</p>

<p>Red-shirt media and those identified as sympathetic to red-shirt protesters suffered heavy censorship yesterday as the government exercised its power under the emergency decree to cut communication lines among the red shirts, leaving society with only what the state views as correct and appropriate.</p> <p>It was a bid to reduce the crowd - but it invited more red shirts to the main protest venue at Rajprasong intersection and elsewhere.</p>