Cambodia acquits [RFA] reporter of spreading false info

2010-02-19
Associated Press

A Cambodian court Friday acquitted a journalist for U.S.-based Radio Free Asia on charges that he spread false information when reporting an alleged corruption case.

Takeo provincial court judge Cheng Bunly dropped the charges against radio reporter Sok Serey for a 2008 broadcast about a dispute between a group of villagers and a leader of the ethnic Cham community, who are mostly Muslims.

RFA, based in Washington D.C. and funded by the U.S. government, broadcasts to Asian countries where freedom of the press is regarded as limited or nonexistent.

In a complaint filed in late 2008, about 200 villagers of the ethnic minority accused their leader of stealing 10 million riel ($2,400) from a community project. Sok Serey was charged with spreading disinformation when he broadcast the story.

Sok Serey was not arrested and was allowed to continue reporting.

Three other people, a villager and two human rights activists from the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, also were acquitted on disinformation charges.

In June 2009, a Cambodian editor, whose newspaper published stories alleging corruption in the office of a senior government official, was found guilty of circulating disinformation and sentenced to a year in jail.

Takeo province is about 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital Phnom Penh.