Cambodian Press Freedom: 'A Difficult Situation'

Cambodia is ranked 144th and of 180 countries by Reporters Without Borders, for Press Freedom. In what is frankly an odd understatement such a ranking places Cambodia's Press in a “difficult situation” the organization claims.

This 'difficult situation' results in arrests, persecution and murder of Cambodian journalists said Delphine Hagland, the US director of Reporters Without Borders

Government spokesman and king spin-man Phay Siphan unsurprisingly rejected the report.

Now, trying to put a positive spin on any number of various reports and scandals must be a difficult and dirty job but surely even the patently stupid Phay Siphan could have come up with a better counter-argument:

" Journalists who have been killed in Cambodia recently have mixed their roles, as police, journalists and others, he said. “They are not real professional journalists.” 

Oh, so those murdered were only part-time journalist?

That's OK, then.

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Cambodia's Prats-in-Power Quotes (3)

Photo: www.guardian.com

Phnom Penh's City Hall have told Unionists that they cannot rally in support of 23 people bundled into police vans and taken to prison during a recent protest.

 It looks as if the Cambodian government agrees with City Hall that the right to protest be denied.

“If people demonstrate, it means they are trying to overthrow the government,” Interior Minister spokesman, Lieutenant General Khieu Sopheak said.

Overthrowing the government, as the Lieutenant General dramatically claims, is of course far from what the unionists want; the release of the wrongly detained and free and fair elections is what they are after. 

And to add farce to his drama Sopheak continued,

“I think they should look for a lawyer to protect [the 23 prisoners],” Lt. Gen Sopheak added. “If they did nothing wrong, they would be released.”

Anti-government protesters treated fairly within the current Cambodian judicial system?

Not going to happen. 

Voices and Choices

 

 July 1, 2013 - We, the undersigned civil society organizations, welcome the government’s decision to rescind shocking measures issued last week to censor Cambodia’s local news media in the final weeks before the July 28 National Assembly elections, and condemn the decision ever to implement such measures. We remain deeply concerned about an order to ban foreign news reporting of election polling which will come into force five days before the vote.

We condemn this ban in the strongest possible terms and urge the government to remove all restrictions on the news media during this critical pre-election period. We also call for the government to guarantee that it will not repeat its attempts to censor the airwaves or any other media, including social media on the internet. 

See the full statement here

The following civil society groups endorse this joint media statement:
Boeung Kak Lake Community (BKL)
Borei Keila Community (BK)
Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM)
Cambodian Confederation Unions (CCU)
Cambodian Food and Service Worker Federation (CFSWF)
Cambodia's Independent Civil-Servants Association (CICA)
Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO)
Cambodian Worker Center for Development (CWCD)
Cambodian Youth Network (CYN)
Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community (CCFC)
Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC)
Community Peace-Building Network (CPN)
Equitable Cambodia (EC)
Farmer Development Association (FDA)
Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA)
LICADHO Canada (LC)
Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Election in Cambodia (NICFEC)
People’s Action for Change (PAC)
Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT)
The Cambodian NGO Committee on CEDAW (NGO-CEDAW)
The Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation (CTSWF)
The Building and Wood Workers Trade Union Federation of Cambodia (BWTUC)
The National Democratic Institute (NDI)
Thmor Kol Community

Ban Backtrack

In a surprise move (at least to me) the Cambodian government has backtracked on its banning of foreign-produced radio content.

“According to requests to the Ministry of Information to allow the rebroadcast of foreign radio in Khmer language on local FM stations, the ministry has decided to allow FM stations that sell their airtime to those foreign radio stations to continue their broadcasts as normal from now on,” the ministry said in its statement.

How generous of them to allow a small measure of freedom of the press.

No word though on the banning of foreigners campaigning during the up-coming election.

Commentators Should Speak in Government's favour says Minister

The Shameless Mok Mareth,
Minister of Environment
and jack-booted opponent  of free-speech

"Equity Weekly" a UN-funded television programme was forced to suspend its weekly show by the Cambodian government who complained that it showed 'bias.'

The letter that lead to the suspension was recently released. In it, Mok Mareth , the Minister of the Environment showed clearly that it's not just bias that aggravates him; he believes that any view contrary to his own should not be allowed to be expressed at all.

"The commentator should speak in favour of the government and should not speak in favour of critical groups," said the minister.

And so there you have it; all pretense of  the Cambodian government welcoming debate and criticism stripped bare.

Cambodian Government Bans Phnom Penh Internet Cafes

Slowly but surely the Cambodian government strengthens its control over the access to information...

December 13, 2012 - 'The government has issued a new circular  ordering the closure of all Internet cafes within a 500 meter radius of schools and educational institutions – an order that, if implemented, would amount to a near-complete ban on such businesses in central Phnom Penh. 

The circular, issued by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on November 12, 2012, also provides for further restrictions not limited by this school buffer zone. All Internet cafes are also required to forbid playing “all kinds of games,” essentially equating such activity with viewing pornography or committing crimes.

“This heavy-handed effort to shut down affordable and accessible venues for using the Internet in Cambodia is not only legally unfounded, it is a transparent attempt to block part of the population’s access to independent sources of information through news sites and social media,” said LICADHO Director Naly Pilorge.

The penalties for violating the circular appear to be forced closures, the confiscation of equipment, and arrest if a crime is committed.'

See the rest of LICADHO's press release here:

http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/pressrelease.php?perm=298

SOS Cambodian Free Speech

Armed police, military police and soldiers- more than twenty of them- stormed Thmarkol village, near Phnom Penh airport yesterday morning, and dragged away 8 villagers.

Their crime?

Frightened and scared for their futures- they have been threatened with forced eviction from their homes- they had painted SOS and displayed larges images of President Obama on the roofs of their houses.

Photo: www.telegraph.co.uk

 Theirs was a vain hope that the Obama would see their handiwork when he flies in Monday, and seek a solution for them.

But what else could they do? The courts don't work and it's the politicians themselves who are often at the forefront of the Cambodian land-grabs.

Held for hours in police cells the villagers were finally released after thumb-printing a document agreeing not to protest again.

Image by: SAMRANG PRING / Reuters

Soldiers with assault rifles are now posted at regular intervals along the road to the village. Just in case some folk don't get the message that there is now an all-out war against free speech in Cambodia.

See also: Phnom Penh's Penniless Pushed Out