Banned! Blogspot Blocked

Cambodian censorship is on the rise. Free speech is under attack. The Cambodian government is becoming ever more draconian as it sues, imprisons and harrasses those opposed to it.


Several days ago the government, it seems, sent out the word to Internet service providers that any sites ending with blogspot.com should be blocked. Some providers, including ours, duly obliged and this blog, like any other blogspot site could not be viewed in Cambodia.


The reason? The government wished to stop a blog that was publishing articles critical of it, from being accessible to Cambodians. That's right, all blogspot sites were blocked so as to stop one blog from expressing opinions contrary to the governments. So much for free speech.


The government denies ever giving such an order- while explicitly claiming that the site in question should be closed- but the providers claim that they did. And why would the providers have a reason to lie?

All blogspot sites are accessible again, although the process has been haphazard with some, like ours, taking an extra day to finally unblock blogger's accounts.

But how long that lasts is anyone's guess. I suspect it's all downhill at an ever-accelerating rate for free speech, from here on.