Thursday, January 31, 2013

‘Authoritarianism’ Helps Cambodia Plummet on Press Freedom Index



Cambodian supporters of Mam Sonando, one of Cambodia’s most prominent human rights defenders, protest in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, in Phnom Penh, file photo.

30.01.2013
By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer

PHNOM PENH - Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday that the media climate in Cambodia is in critical condition, with the country falling 26 places on the group’s annual press freedom index.

Cambodia ranks 143rd out of 179 countries worldwide on the group’s 2013 index, a plummet of its ranking last year and its worst ranking to date.

Rights workers have said 2012 was one of the worst years for the country, following the jailing and intimidation of journalists, rights workers and other government critics.


Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando is currently serving a 20-year sentence, on charges that critics say resulted after he criticized Prime Minister Hun Sen. Environmentalist Chut Wutty was killed in April 2012, while escorting journalists to examine illegal logging in Koh Kong province.

Cambodia fell in with a number of countries under the index’s “big falls,” due to limited access to information and because “authoritarianism and censorship are on the increase,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“Since 2011, news organizations, in particular independent local and foreign radio stations, have been subjected to a policy of censorship orchestrated by an increasingly ruthless information ministry,” the group said in a statement. “The decline in freedom of information also involved deadly attacks and death threats aimed at journalists who exposed government corruption and illegal activities harmful to the environment.”

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

However, Chhay Sophal, a training officer at the Cambodia Club of Journalists, said Cambodia’s media environment was better than that of its neighbors.

“The media has the freedom to write their articles,” he said. “We have media supported by the government and the opposition and some independent media.”

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why this 1/2 Ape and 1/2 human named Hun Sen rose to power?
Because Cambodians Buddhism who turned the nation economy to decline and then collapse.

It is Buddha's fault, but these Cambodian Buddhists' faults. The society must have law limiting who should be ordained Monks and who should not. If all those corrupt/evil men become monks then who will work to keep/feed the NATION strong?

Buddhism should be used to practice in the community but not to allow million men to become monks and then leave the society in cold, let the poor to work so hard to feed themselves and to feed these million lazy men who hide themselves in monk clothes.

Without a strong economy, all nations will collapse.



Anonymous said...

Correction/

Why this 1/2 Ape and 1/2 human named Hun Sen rose to power?

Because Cambodians Buddhism who turned the nation economy to decline and then collapse.

It is NOT Buddha's fault, but these Cambodian Buddhists' faults. The society must have law limiting who should be ordained Monks and who should not. If all those corrupt/evil men become monks then who will work to keep/feed the NATION strong?

Buddhism should be used to practice in the community but not to allow million men to become monks and then leave the society in cold, let the poor to work so hard to feed themselves and to feed these million lazy men who hide themselves in monk clothes.

Without a strong economy, all nations will collapse.

Destroying the empire for 800 years still DO NOT SEE it?