"In Burma the SPDC maintains an extensive network of MIS, police and government officials ready to detain anyone suspected of holding or expressing anti-government opinions. The military in Burma has established and enforced laws curtailing civil and political freedoms and utilized laws that allow it to crush any political opposition. The SPDC?s laws and regulations criminalize freedom of thought, the dissemination of information and the right of association and assembly. The most commonly employed laws banning the demonstration of civil and political rights have been the 1923 Government?s Official Secrets Act, the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, the 1957 Unlawful Associations Act, the 1962 Printers? and Publishers? Registration Law, the 1975 State Protection Law, and Law No. 5/96. These laws and orders have restricted the civil and political rights of Burmese citizens for years; now, with technological advances available across the globe, new laws have been enacted in order to provide the SPDC authorities additional legal bases to curtail freedom of expression and the exchange of information. For more information on these laws, please refer to the chapters on the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly and association..."