Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)

During the past five years of unprecedented political polarization, the media has become an unwitting party to the conflict as each side sought to use it as a political weapon, participants at a World Press Freedom Day event said.

The organisations appeal to the leaders of the Taliban, to the jihadist movements and to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan to put a stop to all further suicide bombings in public gatherings.

“Not only journalists and writers, but even their defenders are being arrested and harassed, from Vietnam, Burma, and Cambodia to Singapore and the Philippines,” deplores SEAPA.

The Facebook page of online news site Prachatai.com has been shut down and two other websites blocked following clashes between security forces and protesters.

News organisations are working to provide independent news and commentary, while struggling to reduce tendencies toward self-censorship.

Bangkok and several outlying provinces have been placed under a state of emergency to better control the situation in the capital.

The director of Prachatai.com is facing a criminal lawsuit for allegedly failing to remove from the site’s discussion board readers’ comments deemed offensive to the monarchy.

The workshop aims to encourage and support the development of a pool of journalists who can cover, monitor and scrutinize the work of the AICHR.