Insult Laws: Insulting to Press Freedom - The case of Cambodia

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Sam Rainsy appeals defamation sentence

Friday, 23 September 2011
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

Sam Rainsy’s lawyer yesterday asked the Appeal Court to overturn a defamation and disinformation conviction against the opposition leader for his allegation that Foreign Minister Hor Namhong had run a Khmer Rouge prison.

No decision was reached by Presiding Judge Seng Neang, but Hor Namhong’s lawyer, Kar Savuth, told the court he hoped “100 per cent” the two-year jail term imposed on Rainsy in April this year for alleging his client ran the Boeung Trabek prison would be upheld.

“The penal procedure code states clearly that whoever files the complaint must be present at the hearing, and Sam Rainsy was not present,” Kar Savuth said.

“If the culprit [Rainsy] was not present, the opposition’s complaint must perish uselessly and the court must keep the old verdict.

“Therefore, I believe the court dares not to change the old verdict.”

Press freedom heroes in Southeast Asia

Hang Chakra (Photo: Sok Serey, RFA)

Wed, Sep 14, 2011
By Shawn W. Crispin/Senior Southeast Asia Representative
CPJ Blog (Committee to Protect Journalists)
Press Freedom News and Views

(Excerpt)

Three Southeast Asian journalists--Cambodia's Hang Chakra, Malaysia's Zulkiflee Anwar Ul Haque, or Zunar, and Thailand's Chiranuch Premchaiporn--were among the 48 awardees of the Hellman/Hammett grant, given to writers targeted with political persecution, who were recognized today by Human Rights Watch for their commitment to press freedom.

Hang Chakra, editor-in-chief of the daily Khmer Machas Srok, was imprisoned for 287 days on "disinformation" charges related to a story he wrote about high-level corruption. Zunar, a cartoonist and contributor to online news site Malaysiakini, now faces sedition charges and possible imprisonment for his banned political illustrations. Chiranuch faces a possible 50 years in prison on charges related to anonymous comments critical of the Thai monarchy posted to one of her news site's Web boards.

I spoke on a panel with them today in Bangkok, where I described the repression they have faced and discussed how their individual cases are indicative of a downward trend in regional press freedom conditions. Excerpts from my address follow:

On behalf of CPJ, I would like to extend my hearty congratulations to these three recipients of the Hellman/Hammett awards, but underscore my organization's belief that none of them should have suffered from the government harassment that is implicit in being a recipient of one of these prestigious awards.

These awards speak to the lack of progress in press freedom in three of Southeast Asia's reputed democracies and point disturbingly to the closing of space that was once open for journalists to report and opine in Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand.

It is notable and chilling that two of today's three recipients have been persecuted for their activities or journalism that originally appeared online. CPJ research shows that the region's governments are increasingly targeting online journalists. Nearly half of the journalists jailed worldwide published their work predominantly online.

.....

In Cambodia, our view is that Hang Chakra was wrongly jailed for reporting on alleged government corruption and failing to disclose his sources. Cambodia's government purports to support a free press and points to the explicit laws in Cambodia's law books protecting press freedom--laws that authorities frequently circumvent to stifle criticism.

The reality on the ground is that Cambodia's media is dominated by newspapers sympathetic to Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party, and those that refuse to step in line--such as Hang Chakra's Khmer Machas Rok--are often targeted for harassment by his government. Along those lines, we continue to campaign on the unresolved death of Cambodian journalist Khem Sambo, who reported critically about Hun Sen's government and was murdered just weeks before the 2008 general elections.

All three of these journalists honored here today have effectively been punished for their courage to speak journalistic truth to power in their respective countries. Their courage in reporting is an inspiration to all of us who believe democracies cannot function without a free and probing press. Their repression raises uncomfortable questions about the quality of democracy in their respective homelands.

May the governments who have bid to make punitive examples of their courage in reporting take note of the international recognition and prestige they have received here today.

Hang Chakra: "The Khmer Machas Srok's article is not an opposition but a piece of news"

Hang Chakra, editor-in-chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper (Photo: Im Navin, RFI)

13 Sept 2011
By Im Narin
Radio France Internationale

Hang Chakra, the editor-in-chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper will receive an honorable prize from Human Rights Watch on Wednesday 14 September 2011. Hang Chakra is known as a prisoner of conscience in Cambodia, but his life is known is not well know. How is the "successful" life under harassment of this author?

Click on the control below to listen to Hang Chakra's interview on RFI:

Media Experts Worry About Declining Freedom

Hang Chakra, the publisher of Khmer Mchas Srok newspaper who was detained in 2010, told “Hello VOA” Thursday the paper had been doing well until he was held under criminal disinformation and defamation charges. (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer

Washington, DC Tuesday, 10 May 2011

“We are not killers murdering someone, and we aren’t robbers.”

Media experts say freedom of expression is on the decline in Cambodia, especially as journalists have recently been detained under criminal disinformation.

Hang Chakra, the publisher of Khmer Mchas Srok newspaper who was detained in 2010, told “Hello VOA” Thursday the paper had been doing well until he was held under criminal disinformation and defamation charges.

“That made me very disappointed, but now I continue with my work and reform that is balanced,” he said. He has again started publishing his paper, which is supportive of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, about a month ago, following more than a year’s absence.

Moeun Chhean Narridh, director of the Cambodian Institute for Media Studies, who was also a guest on “Hello VOA” Thursday, said journalists should not be punished under criminal laws.

Sacrava's 2000th Political Cartoon: DefamationS

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Dear Lok Sacrava,

From the bottom of our heart, THANK YOU so very much for your tremendous contributions to the CAMBODIAN cause and the cause of DEMOCRACY for our people. Your toons are our daily oxygen, a breath of daily fresh air from the drab oppression in Phnom Penh and the Hun Xen's regime.

Please keep them coming for a long time!

KI-Media team

Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy’s verdict to be announced on 25 April

11 April 2011
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Soch

The verdict for opposition leader Sam Rainsy in the defamation and disinformation lawsuit case brought up by Hor 5 Hong which is planned to be handed down on 11 April by the Phnom Penh municipal court, has been delayed to 25 April instead. This delay was due to Judge Seng Neang’s busy schedule and he could not announce the verdict which was originally planned for 11 April.

Sam Rainsy will not ask his lawyer to defend his case

28 March 2011
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Soch

Yesterday, opposition leader Sam Rainsy said that he will not ask his lawyer to defend him in the defamation and disinformation lawsuit against him. The lawsuit was brought by Hor 5 Hong, the minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, on an event taking place in 2008. The court hearing is scheduled for 05 April. In an email sent yesterday, opposition leader Sam Rainsy said that he will not ask his lawyer to participate in the hearing because it is the same case as in the past, and the case will end up with the same sentence as in the past. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy who currently lives in self-exile in Paris said: “According the law and the justice system, a person could not be sentenced twice for the same case (i.e. no double jeopardy).”

The right to remain silent

WEDNESDAY, 16 MARCH 2011
OU VIRAK
Letter to The Phnom Penh Post

“I used to write 100 percent of the truth, but I’ve reduced it to about 30 percent.” - Cambodian journalist Tes Vibol

I write in response to the observations of Roger Mitton in his article dated the March 14 (“No press freedom leads to no freedom whatsoever”), which dealt with the issue of continued restrictions on the freedom of the press in Southeast Asia and which provided the opportunity to discuss the perilous state of journalistic freedom in Cambodia.

Journalism appears to be a safer profession in Cambodia than in previous years; the last murder of a journalist was that of Khim Sambo three years ago, bringing the total to 11 journalists killed over a 15-year period. Nevertheless, the situation of freedom of the press is deteriorating with the government and aligned forces controlling the media and punishing the remaining few journalists who report on issues that run contrary to the interests of the government or which contain criticisms of policy, actions or omissions on its part.

Since the last general election in 2008, the legal system has been working quietly and diligently silencing journalists and others who speak out in criticism of the government. The Club of Cambodian Journalists has reported that for the period of May 3, 2009, to May 3, 2010, 24 journalists were arrested and 10 were sued by members of the government or its inner circle, eight more than in 2008, with two being jailed for disinformation.

Seen trick or treating on Halloween at Ki-Media

NZ rapist facing new charges in Cambodia

Graham Robert Cleghorn

Friday Oct 15, 2010
NZPA

A New Zealander jailed in 2004 for raping five teenage Cambodian girls between the ages of 14 and 19 is now facing new charges of defamation and disinformation filed by a charity group which looks after vulnerable women and children.

Graham Cleghorn, 62, is serving a 20-year sentence for raping the girls, but has claimed that he was set up, and that the charity, the Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre (CWCC), paid the five girls US$10,000 ($13,198.94) each to testify against him.

The girls were employed at his Siem Reap home, near the Angkor Wat temple in northern Cambodia.

Cleghorn represented himself at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday and pleaded not guilty to the new charges, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

He claimed to have evidence - a letter from a girl stating that a CWCC official had asked her to testify against him in exchange for $10,000 - but said the letter and other documents he would like to present were being stored at the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh.

He requested time to get the documents and contact the New Zealand embassy to help him find a lawyer.

Judge Din Sivuthy agreed and set his next appearance for November 15.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said Cleghorn was last visited by New Zealand Embassy staff from Bangkok on October 4.

Cleghorn, 62, is being held in Prey Sar prison, just out of Phnom Penh, since his conviction, which was upheld in 2007 by the Cambodian Court of Appeal.

Last month, another New Zealand man, Michael John Lines, 53, who also has Australian citizenship, stood trial in Cambodia for sexually abusing young girls.

Judge Duch Kimsan of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court said he would give a verdict in the near future, but did not specify when.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign paedophiles because of poverty and poor law enforcement, but in recent years police and courts have increasingly targeted sex offenders.

KDC sues activist in land row

CPP Suy Sem (L) and his wife Chea Kheng (R)

Wednesday, 23 June 2010
May Titthara and Irwin Loy
The Phnom Penh Post

A COMPANY belonging to the wife of a government minister that is involved in a long-simmering land dispute in Kampong Chhnang province has filed a legal complaint accusing a local rights advocate of disinformation – another example, some observers say, of the courts being used to silence criticism in controversial land cases.

Sam Chankea, coordinator for the rights group Adhoc in Kampong Chhnang, said he is the target of a disinformation complaint filed in late May by KDC International Company, which is headed by Chea Kheng, the wife of Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem.

Sam Chankea said the complaint stems from a December 26, 2009, interview with Radio Free Asia, in which he suggested that the clearance of disputed land by the company might be against the law. “The reporter just asked me about my point of view related to the company clearing villagers’ land. I said that if this is a case of clearing land belonging to villagers, it is illegal,” he said.

In the complaint, the company denies clearing disputed land, though Sam Chankea said villagers have insisted otherwise. Sam Chankea said he suspected the complaint was an attempt to intimidate him, because he had recently urged the provincial court to investigate villagers’ claims that they had been victims of a fraudulent land deal.

The company “filed a complaint against me just to threaten me to stop working on this case”, he said. “But I am not worried about this because we are working on human rights.”

KDC representative Thai Hy confirmed that a complaint had been filed against Sam Chankea on May 25, but declined to discuss the allegations at length.

Provincial court prosecutor Penh Vibol also declined to discuss them beyond saying that he had asked police to launch an investigation.

The dispute originally involved 108 families who say they have lived for years on the land in Ta Ches commune’s Lorpeang village. The company says that it bought the land in 1996.

In 2007, the company asserted its ownership of roughly 145 hectares of disputed land, saying it had struck a deal with 105 of the families. Rights groups, however, say 64 holdout families never agreed to sign over their property.

If the disinformation claim proceeds to court, it will mark at least the sixth time KDC International Company has asked the legal system to wade into the dispute, Sam Chankea said.

Since 2002, the company has filed complaints against villagers five times, he said, including a case last year in which the village chief was convicted of forging residents’ thumbprints on a complaint letter detailing claims that villagers had never sold their land to KDC.

‘Criminalisation’ of advocacy

Rights groups say there has been a recent surge in the number of legal cases brought against community groups and advocates involved in land disputes, accusing authorities and well-connected officials of becoming increasingly fond of “intimidation” tactics.

According to Adhoc, at least 235 “human rights defenders” – a term that refers to individual protesters, community representatives or representatives of protesters – faced legal scrutiny in 2009.

Of these, 58 were incarcerated as of January this year, while 88 were on the run.

“Based on these figures, intimidation against human rights defenders in 2009 rose up noticeably, compared to 164 cases in 2008,” Adhoc’s Human Rights Situation report for last year states.

Whereas human rights advocates might once have been quietly accused of “inciting protests”, they are now much more likely to be charged with actual criminal offences, the report states.

“Intimidation is a way to psychologically frighten human rights activists and human rights workers in Cambodia so they will not be able to fulfill their missions....” the report concludes.

“In return, it will force the victims to accept the resolution offered by local authorities who collude with the powerful at the expense of the powerless.”

Yeng Virak, executive director of the Community Legal Education Centre, said there has been an alarming increase in the “criminalisation” of land-dispute cases.

“It means [the courts] are not resolving the problem. They just make the problem worse,” he said.

“If you’re talking about community representatives, it is like they have been victimised twice. Their land is taken away, and at the same time they face criminal charges.”

Two foreigners charged in terrorism hoax after business dispute

Jun 4, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Two foreign nationals have appeared in a Cambodian court after an escalating business dispute saw threatening letters sent to three Western embassies, local media reported Friday.

The letters reportedly stated that foreigners with al-Qaeda links would bomb the embassies of the United States, Britain and Australia.

Police spokesman Kirt Chantarith told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper that a Nepali man and a Bangladeshi man had been charged with spreading disinformation.

'We found that this case came from a business dispute, and there is no relation to terrorism,' he told the newspaper.

Spokesmen for the embassies involved declined to comment on the arrests.

Groups Report Decline in Press Freedom in 2009

Hang Chakra, Editor-in-chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper: Jailed

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Monday, 03 May 2010

“I ask the government not to use the courts to dominate journalists.”

Cambodia remains a difficult place to practice journalism, with courts used by powerful officials and businessmen to pressure the media, journalists and rights workers said Monday, on World Press Freedom Day.

In the one year since the last Press Freedom Day, 24 Cambodian journalists were arrested and 10 sued by powerful interests, the Cambodian Club of Journalists said in a statement.

Reporters Without Borders ranks Cambodia No. 117 of 174 countries in press freedom.

Those arrested include Hang Chakra, editor of the opposition-aligned Khmer Mchas Srok newspaper, who was released in April after serving nearly 10 months of a one-year sentence.

He was held on defamation charges after reporting on alleged corruption within the powerful Council of Ministers, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.

“I request that government to be open to real press freedom, without restrictions,” Hang Chakra, whose paper began publishing again on the weekend, said Monday. “I ask the government not to use the courts to dominate journalists.”

Another journalist, Ros Sokhet, was sentenced to two years in jail in November, on defamation charges, for sending disparaging text messages to CTN TV anchor Soy Sopheap. He remains in jail.

“Now journalists continue to face threats and intimidation, as charges with political motives have been raised against members of the press to stop debates relating to politics and criticism,” said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. “The government should avoid the use of the courts to pressure journalists.”

Um Sarin, president of the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists, said press freedom in Cambodia has declined. But he acknowledged that sometimes stories are unbalanced because officials fail to respond to journalists’ queries.

“Some professional journalists face difficulties writing fair enough articles for the public and society, because other parties in the article can’t be reached for comment, so some articles were sued,” he said.

Press Freedom clouded by jail sentence

Hang Chakra

01 May 2010
Editorial by Pen Bona
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

"...this situation [the jailing of journalists for expressing their opinions] is clearly a contradiction to Hun Xen’s win-win policy"

On 03 May, just like many other countries in the world, Cambodia will celebrate the World Press Freedom Day which is the basis of democracy itself. In Cambodia, freedom of the press has notably moved forward during the past two decades, but jail sentence still haunts journalists and it is a dark cloud casting its ominous shadow over press freedom in Cambodia.

Cambodia is a country that saw a noticeable progress in the freedom of the press, not just in comparison to the war period, but it also earns a good mark among the countries in the region.

However, the main obstacle to the progress of the press in Cambodia stems from the fact that journalists are still facing jail sentence for writing their opinions. The case of Hang Chakra, Editor-in-chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper who was recently released from jail during the Cambodia New Year, is a sober reminder of this situation. This pro-opposition journalist was sentenced to 1-year of jail term for disinformation under a lawsuit brought up the government lawyer.

In reality, journalists do not enjoy any special immunity and they are just like any other citizens who would be responsible in front of the law, i.e. if a journalist commits a crime, he will face a criminal sentence just like anybody else. However, in order to guarantee the democratic freedom of expression, the law also protects journalists from being sent to jail for expressing their opinions.

There are three factors that guarantee Cambodian journalists from being sentenced to jail term:

1- Following the 1993 election, Cambodia selected to follow the path of plural democracy. Under this condition, freedom of expression is itself protected by the Constitution.
2- To guarantee the strengthening of the freedom of the press, the National Assembly ratified the information law which went into effect since 1995. This law clearly guarantees that no journalists should be arrested or sent to jail for expressing their opinions.
3- PM Hun Xen publicly announced that defamation cases must not be sentenced by jail term. Hun Xen’s declaration was aimed at avoiding jail term sentence handed down to journalists.

Unfortunately, every time when journalists are being sued, the factors above are usually neglected and journalists ended up being sentenced for disinformation – a criminal offense – and they ended being sent to jail as before. In reality, even if the information law protects journalists from jail sentence, the law also prescribes heavy fines in cases involving defamation or disinformation.

What is surprising is that the suing party tried very hard to evade the information law and they only want to use the criminal law to ensure that the accused journalists are being sent to jail. So the question is: who benefits from this issue? The real answer is that nobody wins and everybody loses: for the accused journalist, he ended up wasting time and income to support his family; as for the government which allows such jail sentence to take place, it comes under severe criticism from all corners, the government’s action leads to a cheapening of Cambodia’s democracy and rule of law.

Furthermore, this situation is clearly a contradiction to Hun Xen’s win-win policy. Therefore, the dark clouds that cast their ominous shadow on Cambodia’s democracy through the jailing of journalists should no longer be allowed!

Hang Chakra to continue publishing newspaper

Hang Chakra talked to reporters after his release from Prey Sar jail on 13 April 2010 (Photo: Sok Serey, RFA)

14 April 2010
By Leang Delux
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

Hang Chakra, the Editor-in-Chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper who was released as planned in the afternoon of 13 April, declared that he will gather all his colleagues to re-open the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper after the Cambodian New Year celebration.

Hang Chakra, the Editor-in-Chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper, told RFI on 14 April that he will meet and gather all his colleagues soon after the celebration of the Cambodian New Year in order to restart the publication of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper. The newspaper had to suspend its publication on 02 April due to bankruptcy.

After his release from jail, Hang Chakra claimed that he will continue his journalism profession because this is what he likes and wants to do. He indicated that he was elated to be released from jail, but what worries him now is the search for funds to restart his newspaper. As a newspaper leaning toward the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, Hang Chakra revealed that he will most likely try to obtain support from this party, nevertheless, he is more confident on his own funding source.

Today, opposition leader Sam Rainsy sent a greeting message to Hang Chakra for his release from jail.

Hang Chakra was sued by the government lawyer for disinformation on 2 articles that affected Xok An, the vice-PM. The court sentenced Hang Chakra to 1-year of jail term staring from July 2009. Hang Chakra was released after completing 2/3 of his sentence and Hun Xen requested King Sihamoni to pardon him.

Hang Chakra claimed that, from now on, he will write articles where there are definite sources.

In Journalists Acquittal, Lessons All Around

RFA Reporter Sok Serey
Khmer Machas Srok Editor Hang Chakra

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
25 February 2010

Last week’s acquittal of a Radio Free Asia reporter accused of disinformation has been welcomed by advocacy groups as well as the UN, but observers warn that a number of journalists remain in jail for doing their jobs.

Immediately following the decision of Takeo provincial court, which had tried radio journalist Sok Serey after a story on local corruption, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights touted the decision as “encouraging development for freedom of expression.”

Ou Virak, president of the organization, told VOA Khmer on Tuesday that all courts should consider the possibility of malicious intent when charges are brought against journalists.

In Sok Serey’s case, it was a local official accused of corruption who brought the suit, which carries a criminal charge under Cambodian law. Takeo court officials cited a lack of evidence and malicious intent as the reasons behind the acquittal.

“Judgments in past cases did not take into account that intent,” Ou Virak said. “Only the court in Takeo did.”

The UN’s office for human rights in Phnom Penh called the decision “a significant step towards the protection of the right of human rights defenders and journalists to freely and peacefully express themselves on matters of public interest, without fear of reprisals”.

Sok Serey, two members of the Cambodia-Muslim community and two local rights activists were charged with disinformation following their interviews alleging that the local Muslim imam, Riem Math, and two other members of the committee were involved in corruption.

Ny San, a community member, was subsequently jailed as a result of the case. He will serve five months in jail and was fined $250.

While the decision itself received praise, Reporters Without Borders called for the release of Hang Chakra, the editor of Khmer Machas Srok newspaper, who remains in jail after publishing a story alleging corruption within the powerful Council of Ministers, which is led by Cabinet Minister Sok An.

Reporters Without Borders also called on a re-investigation into the murder of journalist Khim Sambor, who was gunned down along with his son in Phnom Penh ahead of 2008’s July elections.

For Pen Samithy, president of the Club of Cambodian Journalists, Sok Serey’s case served as a reminder that journalists much maintain professionalism and care.

“Long-working journalists will know what to be cautious about,” he said. “This includes keeping their records and finding a balance [in reporting], and the only way to protect themselves is to increase their adherence to facts.”

Radio Free Asia Praises Acquittal in Cambodia Disinformation Case

Feb-19-2010
Source: Radio Free Asia

The RFA's Sok Serey, one villager, and two activists from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights were released.

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - Today, Radio Free Asia President Libby Liu praised the acquittal of four men, including RFA broadcaster Sok Serey, on charges of disinformation stemming from a report about a Cham Muslim community leader in Takeo province.

“We at Radio Free Asia are pleased that our reporter has been acquitted of the baseless charges against him,” Liu said. “We hope this ruling will reverse the growing pattern of using Cambodia’s legal system to suppress free speech and freedom of the press.”

The Trial’s Background

Serey, a journalist with RFA’s Khmer language service, was among the four men charged with disinformation.

Last year, authorities charged the men following the broadcast of Serey’s report in late 2008 that contained comments from the three other defendants regarding a dispute between Cham Muslim community leader Rim Math and more than 200 villagers from his mosque.

In a complaint filed with leaders of the Cham Muslim community in late 2008, villagers from Borei Cholsar district’s Kampong Yol village, called for the dismissal of Rim Math on the charge of mishandling donations (10 million riels, valued at 2,400 USD) intended for a local project.

In addition to Serey, the other men acquitted were one villager and two activists from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. The men’s trial was held on Feb. 9.

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.

Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy’s Trial a Farce: Human Rights Watch

Conviction Demonstrates Continuing Persecution of Critics, Political Control of Judiciary

January 28, 2010
Source: Human Rigths Watch

"The Cambodian government’s relentless crackdown on critics continues apace in 2010. Hun Sen seems intent on reversing the political pluralism that has been created over the past two decades" - Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

(New York) - A Cambodian court's closed-door conviction and sentencing of the opposition leader Sam Rainsy and two others takes Prime Minister Hun Sen's campaign of persecution of critics to a new extreme and highlights government control over the judiciary, Human Rights Watch said today.

On January 27, 2010, the Svay Rieng provincial court convicted Rainsy and two villagers, Meas Srey and Prom Chea, on charges of racial incitement and destroying demarcation posts on Cambodia's border with Vietnam. Rainsy, who was in Paris, was tried in absentia and sentenced to two years in prison and fined 8 million riels (approximately US$2,000). Meas Srey and Prom Chea were each sentenced to one year in prison for destroying public property. The court also ordered the three to pay 55 million riels (approximately US$13,000) in compensation for the removal of border markers with Vietnam.

"The Cambodian government's relentless crackdown on critics continues apace in 2010," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Hun Sen seems intent on reversing the political pluralism that has been created over the past two decades."

The cases were brought after Rainsy and local villagers pulled six temporary border markers from the ground in Chantrea district of Svay Rieng. Local villagers alleged that the border markers represented an attempt by Vietnam to encroach on Cambodian land, a longstanding claim of Rainsy and his party.

The trial did not meet international standards for a fair trial, Human Rights Watch said. The lawyer for Meas Srey and Prom Chea said the court refused to consider defense evidence. By trying Rainsy in absentia, the court denied him his rights to defend himself and to examine the evidence against him. The trial was closed to journalists, human rights organizations, and the general public.

The court was surrounded by a heavy police presence, which observers say was intended to intimidate defense counsel and influence the court's ruling - a common feature of political trials in Cambodia. Svay Rieng provincial court has a long history of politically motivated rulings.

On January 6, Hun Sen, who has long exercised an iron grip over the courts, made the outcome of the trial clear. He announced that he would not request a pardon for Rainsy if he was found guilty. "This time I would like to declare ... there is no [pardon]; after the court convicts, let it be," Hun Sen said during an inauguration ceremony for a stretch of National Road 1 in Kandal province.

"Any hopes of slowing Hun Sen's assault on the political opposition now depends on the donor community, which props up the government financially," Adams said. "This political trial should make donors recognize the gravity of the situation."

Senior government officials have repeatedly brought politically motivated cases against Rainsy in recent years. His immunity as a member of parliament was lifted in February 2009 after Hun Sen filed a criminal defamation complaint against him for accusing Hun Sen of corruption. Rainsy's immunity was restored after his party paid a US$2,500 fine. On November 19, his immunity was lifted again for the border markers case.

Rainsy still faces a defamation complaint filed in 2009 by the Phnom Penh municipal governor, Kep Chuktema, after Rainsy allegedly said in a speech in May that Kep Chuktema was involved in vote-buying.

The most recent attempt to jail Sam Rainsy came in December 2005, when he was sentenced to 18 months in prison on transparently political charges. Rainsy was out of the country at the time. Under international pressure, Hun Sen agreed to a royal pardon in February 2006.

From the time he created his political party in 1995, Rainsy has been subject to assassination attempts, threats, intimidation, criminal cases, and civil court cases. On March 30, 1997, a grenade attack on a political rally he was addressing killed at least 16 people and wounded 150. Rainsy's life was saved when the full force of the blast hit one of his bodyguards. Hun Sen's bodyguard unit has been implicated in the attack.

At least 10 government critics were prosecuted for criminal defamation and disinformation based on complaints by government and military officials during 2009. Criminal defamation, disinformation, and incitement lawsuits were also filed against two members of Parliament from the opposition Rainsy Party, Mu Sochua and Ho Vann, and a youth activist, Soung Sophorn.