Thursday, January 20, 2011

Blockage of blog denied [-Censorship at work in Phnom Penh]

Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Meas Sokchea and Summer Walker
The Phnom Penh Post

The government has denied that it has ordered local internet service providers to block a domain hosting controversial antigovernment news blog KI-Media, amid reports customers of the Ezecom ISP were unable to access the site today.

A customer service representative for Ezecom, contacted by The Post today, confirmed that his manager told him to block access to the website, saying the government had informed them to shut it down.

Naly Pilorge, director of the rights group Licadho, said her staff could not access any sites on KI-Media’s blogspot.com domain through Ezecom as of this morning, and she had received similar complaints from about 15 others Ezecom customers as early as Tuesday.

She said a customer service representative had also informed her that an unidentified government ministry asked the firm to block the site on Tuesday, due the highly critical commentary posted on the website.

There have been no reports of other ISPs blocking the domain.


Ezecom CEO Paul Blanche-Horgan said he was unaware that any actions had been taken today to shut off access to the website, forwarding questions to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

Government officials contacted today also denied any action to block KI-Media.

“The ministry of posts and telecommunications did not attempt to shut them [KI media] down,” Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun told reporters today.

He said, however, that the government had to “make sure that what is on the website is true” and ensure it doesn’t post any lewd images.

When contacted today, Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said he did not know whether the government had ordered Ezecom to block the blogspot.com domain, but added that KI-Media deserved to be shut down.

“I don’t know, but it should be closed,” he said, due to its strong criticisms of the government.

Government spokesman and Information Minister Khieu Kanharith could not be reached for comment today.

Naly Pilorge from Licadho said that if the reports that the government had blocked the site were true, it would mark a significant narrowing of the space for public debate.

This is a critical moment towards censorship and more repression,” she said.

Free access to information is vital to any functioning democracy.”

KI-Media last made headlines in December, when Seng Kunnaka, a security guard employed by the United Nations World Food Programme, was charged with incitement and jailed for six months after he showed colleagues an article printed from the website.

Following Seng Kunnaka’s conviction, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan told The Post that the article had referred to Prime Minister Hun Sen and Var Kimhong, the senior minister in charge of border affairs, as “traitors”.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SAMOEURN SAMBATH

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

AH HUN SEN KBORT JEAT
AH HUN SEN KBORT JEAT
AH HUN SEN KBORT JEAT
AH HUN SEN KBORT JEAT
AH HUN SEN KBORT JEAT

Anonymous said...

AH HUN SEN TRAITOR
AH HUN SEN TRAITOR
AH HUN SEN TRAITOR
AH HUN SEN TRAITOR
AH HUN SEN TRAITOR

Anonymous said...

SAM RAINSY PATRIOT
SAM RAINSY PATRIOT
SAM RAINSY PATRIOT
SAM RAINSY PATRIOT
SAM RAINSY PATRIOT

Anonymous said...

SAM RAINSY SNAEHA JEAT
SAM RAINSY SNAEHA JEAT
SAM RAINSY SNAEHA JEAT
SAM RAINSY SNAEHA JEAT
SAM RAINSY SNAEHA JEAT

UNTY said...

TRAITOR LOST BODY PART .CAN NOT SLEEP WITH DARK SPOT FROM POPULAR KI OF UNITY AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Anonymous said...

Why KI media blog is blocked? It’s the only source of truth.
The truth hurts, but it hurts the cowardly strong like
Hun Xen the most. A fool is just like that, scared of the truth
like a cow with a bad wound on its back is scared of a crow.

Anonymous said...

Hun Sen and his son go into KI Media blog just as some of us do. He lets his son write back to those criticize him very often.

KI media and CAMDISC are the only two news media critical of Hun Sen the most. I go there almost everyday, because there are more news than in any other media blogs, and it’s easier to write comments.
transfrrered from Camnews

Anonymous said...

Why the fuck is ah hun sen stay in power too fucking long he need to fucking die and go to hell and the rest of is cpp all look like fucking gook youn. now is time to change the fucking goverment do it like tunisia uprising and chase all the fucking baster away for good. so all mighty god in the universal please punish all these khmer evil leader.

Anonymous said...

The true is hurt, that is why the traitors blocked KI, so they think they can people to know the true.

So it is a war between the traitors
Youns slaves and the democracy media KI. Who is going to win baby???

Wait and see what KI can do ?? and what the traitors are trying to do??

After all the secret is out in the open now. KI exposed the true faces of the traitors and their gangs that rob the Cambodians people such as land crabbing, selling of the national assets, million of youns srok Khmer, the traitors and his gangs getting richer while the poor Khmer didn't have a place to live.

Anonymous said...

The true is hurt, that is why the traitors blocked KI, so they think they can stop people to know the true.

So it is a war between the traitors
Youns slaves and the democracy media KI. Who is going to win baby???

Wait and see what KI can do ?? and what the traitors are trying to do??

After all the secret is out in the open now. KI exposed the true faces of the traitors and their gangs that rob the Cambodians people such as land crabbing, selling of the national assets, million of youns srok Khmer, the traitors and his gangs getting richer while the poor Khmer didn't have a place to live.

Anonymous said...

Smart mobile, Cellcard, is blocked....,too

However, Star cell and Qb 013 still ok.

Better start promote Group Mail as soon as possible.