Yala attacks prompt enforcement of measures to reduce legal instruments in dealing with violence in deep South

Decree brings ‘hidden dangers’

Members of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) yesterday dismissed the government’s decision to impose a state-of-emergency decree, saying it bypassed the body’s efforts to use peaceful means to contain the violence in the South.

Media fumes over blow to press freedom

Journalists yesterday cried foul over the government’s new media restrictions banning “terrifying and distorted reports” of incidents during states of emergency.

COMMENT: Solution more worrying than the problem

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s sweeping and absolute powers to handle the increasingly turbulent deep South could plunge the whole of Thailand into something much darker than the widespread blackout in Yala caused by simultaneous terrorist attacks Thursday night.