Press freedom: Reporter complains of ‘beating’

Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Mom Kuntear and Daniel Sherrell
The Phnom Penh Post

Press freedom

A REPORTER at Resmey 7 Makara newspaper has accused a timber broker of beating him after he took pictures of the man’s truck, which he believes was transporting illegal lumber.

Plong Reth said yesterday that he had filed a complaint against Hout Sophann to the police chief of Sra Nge commune, in Siem Reap town, on Sunday – two days after the alleged incident.

“I sued [the broker] for injuries he caused me, and demanded he pay US$2000 in compensation,” he said.

Rasmei Kampuchea reporter beaten up

Tuesday 02 March 2010
By P.B.
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Alain de Veng
Click here to read the article in French

While he was taking pictures at a market, the reporter was assaulted by several individuals.

Vong Thou, a reporter for the Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper in Banteay Meanchey, was beaten up at the beginning of the week by owners of gambling parlors while he was trying to take pictures of Yuki, a gambling that is very popular in Cambodia, especially at the Kbal Spean market in Poipet.

The reporter was severely injured on his head and his face. The cops had already arrested two of the assailants and Vong Thou brought up a lawsuit to the provincial court, accusing his assailants of murder attempt.

In a communiqué issued on 02 March, the Club of Cambodian Journalists [CCJ] considers the violence as a serious attack on the freedom of the press: “We call on the justice [system] and the police to arrest the authors of the attack, and to sentence them according to the law,” the CCJ indicated.

Military police beating up a reporter in Pursat province? [-The reporter wrote an article critical to the PM deputy chief]

07 August 2007
By Sary Rath
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) issued yesterday a statement dated 06 August asking the police unit in charge of investigation and the Pursat provincial court, to review the case of Oeun Vannak, the deputy military police chief for the province of Pursat, who is accused of beating up reporter Heng Veasna in O’Thkov village, Roleab commune, Sampov Meas district, Pursat province. The alleged beating took place on 04 August.

According to preliminary investigation by CCHR, the attack on the reporter took place because he wrote an article critical of a judge who ordered the release of a Vietnamese criminal, and the neglect of the deputy prosecutor of a lawsuit brought up by the people asking for intervention. The article also criticized an official of the fisheries department who happens to be a friend of Oeun Vannak, the deputy military police chief for Pursat province.

RFA could not obtain an immediate confirmation from any court official, or from the police authority, regarding the request made by CCHR about the beating of reporter Heng Veasna.