អតីត​អ្នក​យក​ព័ត៌មាន​វិទ្យុ​អាស៊ី​សេរី​ទទួល​មរណភាព

លោក សំ បូរិន្ទ(ឆ្វេង​)ភរិយានិង​កូន​ប្រុស​ស្រី​របស់​លោក​។ រូបថត សហ​ការី

Monday, 14 May 2012 12:04
សូ វិសាល
The Phnom Penh Post

ភ្នំពេញៈ អតីត​អនុ​ប្រធាន​វិទ្យុ​អាស៊ី​សេរី ផ្នែក​ខេមរ​ភាសា ដែល​មាន​វោហារសាស្ត្រ​ប៉ិន​ប្រសប់ ក្នុង​ការ​ធ្វើ​សម្ភាស ធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​អ្នក​ស្តាប់​ជក់​ចិត្ត​ដិត​អារម្មរណ៍​យ៉ាង​ខ្លាំង​នោះ​ បាន​ទទួល​មរណភាព​ហើយ កាល​ពី​ថ្ងៃ​សោរ៍ នៅ​ក្នុង​ជន្មាយុ ៦០ ឆ្នាំ​។

លោក សំ បូរិន្ទ ត្រូវ​បាន​អ្នក​និយម​ស្តាប់​វិទ្យុ​អាស៊ី​សេរី ស្ងើច​សរសើរ​ ដោយ​សារ​តែ​វោហារសាស្ត្រ ដ៏​ប៉ិនប្រសប់​របស់​លោក​ ក្នុង​ការ​ធ្វើ​សម្ភាស និង​សេចក្តី​រាយការណ៍​ផ្សេង​ៗ ជា​ពិសេស​សេចក្តី​រាយការណ៍ ទាក់ទង​ទៅ​នឹង​ការ​អប់រំ តាម​បែប​ព្រះ​ពុទ្ធសាសនា ចាប់​តាំង​ពី​អំឡុង​ឆ្នាំ ២០០០ រហូត​ដល់​ចុង​ឆ្នាំ ២០១០។ លោក​បាន​ទទួល​មរណភាព កាល​ពី​ថ្ងៃ​សៅរ៍ នៅ​ឯ​គេហដ្ឋាន របស់​លោក ​នា​ទីក្រុង ស៊ីលវើស្ព្រីង ក្នុង​រដ្ឋ​ម៉ារីឡែន សហរដ្ឋ​អាមេរិក ដោយ​រោគាពាធ។

បុរស​សម្បុរ​ខ្មៅ​ស្រអែម ខ្ពស់​ស្រឡះ ដែល​ធ្លាប់​រស់​នៅ​ជំរំ​ឫទ្ធីសែន តាម​បណ្តោយ​ព្រំ​ដែន​ខ្មែរ​ថៃ កាល​ពី​សម័យ​សង្គ្រាម​រូប​នេះ បាន​ទៅ​បន្ត​ការ​សិក្សា​ផ្នែក​អនុបណ្ឌិត ​រដ្ឋបាល​នៅ​សាកល​វិទ្យាល័យ ហាវើត សហរដ្ឋ​អាមេរិក កាល​ពី​អំឡុង​ឆ្នាំ ១៩៩៩ ហើយ​ក្រោយ​ពេល​បញ្ចប់​ការ​សិក្សា លោក​បាន​ចូល​បម្រើ​ការ​ នៅ​វិទ្យុ​អាស៊ី​សេរី ក្នុង​ឆ្នាំ ២០០០។

Analysis Report on the Rattanakiry First Instance Court Try to Locate Fault Against Prominent ADHOC Staff

http://www.box.net/shared/6h4of6n14a2tbuua2g4r

13 October 2011
Report by Ouch Leng

The chronic land dispute between136 families of Tumpoun’s indigenous people with DM Group company over 260 hectares stretched from 2005, is was not resolved. In contrast at least found that 18 people are charged with crime in which 3 of human rights defenders, one from Radio Free Asia and other one from forest community. They were charged by court following criminal complaint from company since 2008 when Mr. Yang Thorn,land representative was also imprisoned for more than one year counted from 27 November 2008.

Up to this year of 2011, from judge to judge of Rattanakiry court, they try to find guilty to Mr. Mr. Pen Bunna again and again with the aim to harass, intimidate him to stop working with this land case. Especially Investigative Judge, Mr. Thoa Sarorn did not find any guilty to Pen Bunna and successively Mr. Lao Loch also taken criminal case No. 283 dated 24 Nov 2008.

Today, 13 October 2011, Pen Bunna, Chhay Thy (ADHOC) and Ratha Visal (RFA) were questioned by new Investigative Judge, Mr. Lao Loch over incitement to commit crime: ( Burning bridge of company).

Question to RFA regarding one of its reporters

KI-Media Note: Dear Readers, a reader by the name of Vuthy forwarded to us the following email question which he submitted to Mr. Kem Sos of RFA Khmer Service. While we cannot verify Mr. Vuthy's claim one way or another, we are reproducing his question with some minor edits below for your information. Thank you!

Dear Mr. Kem Sos,

Is it true that Radio Free Asia spends American taxpayers money to hire CPP official to work for it? According to the document attached here [see below], it says Mr. Pon Bunsong who uses the airname on Radio Free Asia radio as Mondul Keo was working for the Phnom Penh city information office and, remarkably, he [also] speaks Vietnamese. Does Radio Free Asia has a policy of hiring government official to work for it?

Hoping to hear an explanation [on this issue].

Thanks,

Vuthy

In respect to the privacy of Mr. Pon Bunsong's children, KI-Media has blacked out their names and date of birth.
Click on the bio sheet to zoom in

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.

Freedom of Expression Respected in Important Verdict by the Takeo Provincial Court

Cambodian Center for Human Rights

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION RESPECTED IN IMPORTANT VERDICT BY THE TAKEO PROVINCIAL COURT

PRESS RELEASE

PHNOM PENH - 19 FEBRUARY 2010

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) welcomes the acquittals delivered by the Takeo Provincial Court today, Friday 19 February 2010, in the Disinformation cases of two community activists, Ny San and Seb Sein; two CCHR affiliated rights activists, Cheab Chiev and Khoem Sarum; and the Radio Free Asia journalist, Sok Serei. Although the CCHR is disappointed by the guilty verdict for Destruction of Property against Ny San- which was contrary to the evidence of the case - and his sentence of five months imprisonment and a payment of one million riels ($250USD) to the complainant, the Disinformation acquittals and the reasoning behind these acquittals represent an encouraging development for freedom of expression in Cambodia.

The case arises from a petition made by the people of Kampong Youl Village, Takeo Province, which sought an election of new Islamic officials in the Cham Muslim village after allegations that the local Iman, Riem Math, and two other members of the local committee vested with the responsibility of managing the mosque’s fund had mishandled a donation of 10 million Riels to the mosque authorities. As a result of this petition Ny San, Seb Sein, Cheab Chiev and Khoem Sarum were interviewed by Radio Free Asia by Sok Serei and Tin Zakariya on 25 December 2008. It is from this interview that the charges of Disinformation under Article 62 of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) Criminal Code arose.

In his verdict, Judge and Deputy President of Takeo Provincial Court, Cheng Bunly, held that the defendants were to be acquitted of the charge of Disinformation owing to the absence of malicious intent – the mental pre-requisite for the offence - on their part. Moreover, the Judge opined that the CCHR affiliated activists as well as the journalist could not be found guilty on the charge of Disinformation as they had merely reported on the demands of the people of Kampong Youl Village. In the opinion of the CCHR, the reasoning of the Judge – insofar as the charges of Disinformation are concerned – is a welcome example of the correct application the offence of Disinformation to the acts giving rise to the criminal charge. In this regard, the CCHR welcomes this decision insofar as it respects the right to freedom of expression in Cambodia and hopes that this verdict serves as an example to the judiciary in their efforts to uphold this fundamental and universal human right.

For more information, please contact:
Mr. Ou Virak, President, CCHR
Tel: +855 12 404051
Email: ouvirak@cchrcambodia.org

Mr. John Coughlan, Legal Officer, CCHR
Tel: +855 89 583590
Email: johncoughlan@cchrcambodia.org

Defendants released after Takeo court questioning

Friday, 02 October 2009
Chrann Chamroeun
The Phnom Penh Post

Judge gives reporter and rights activists four days to find legal representation.

A RADIO Free Asia reporter and two human rights activists charged with spreading disinformation were released after appearing for questioning before a Takeo provincial court on Thursday.

Their release comes one day after the arrest of their co-defendant, local Cham Muslim leader Ny San, set off a confrontation between military police and shocked members of Borei Cholsa district’s Cham Muslim community.

According to Chheng Sophors, a senior investigator for local rights group Licadho, “RFA reporter Sok Serey arrived in court for the interrogation accompanied by a lawyer. Although he was allowed to go home, the charges against him still stand. All the defendants are awaiting trial.”

The charges were brought against the defendants by Ry Mab, acting representative of the Borei Cholsa Cham, after RFA and the CCHR reported on a leadership dispute involving Cham Muslims supporting Ny San.

Chiep Cheav and Khem Sarom, the two rights activists, who are employed by the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR), answered none of the questions directed at them by investigating Judge Tith Sothy. Neither was represented by a lawyer.

“I reserved my full right not to answer any questions regarding the charge of spreading disinformation,” said Chiep Cheav.

“But I asked the judge to suspend his interrogation for 10 days in order to give me adequate time to find a lawyer. He gave us only four days before we have to show up again in court, which I accepted.”

“We refused to accept the charges brought against us. Instead, we advised the plaintiffs to lodge their complaints with the provincial religion department and the Ministry of Cults and Religions, and also suggested that they broadcast their information on Radio Free Asia,” he added.

Because two of the four days allotted to find legal representation will fall on the weekend, Chheng Sophors said he doubted the defendants would be able to find lawyers in time. Nonetheless, Chheng Sophors pledged that Licadho would remain involved.

“We will keep investigating this case until the trial. Today we brought in a UN representative to meet with the judge and find out more about the case, but I don’t know what the two discussed,” he said.

The Dangers for Journalists Who Expose Environmental Issues

Sep-18-2009
Source: Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders)

We must defend journalists who expose attacks on the environment.

Radio Free Asia, one of the few media to cover this story in detail, was threatened by a man who went to the station’s bureau in Phnom Penh. And one of its reporters, Lem Piseth, had this conversation with an anonymous caller: “Is that you, Lem Piseth?” “Yes. Who are you?” “You are insolent, do you want to die?”

“Why are you insulting me like this?”

“Because of the business of the forest and you should know that there will not be enough land to bury you”. Piseth fled across the border into Thailand.

This kind of threat has to be taken seriously.

(PARIS, France RFP) - Guinean journalist Lai Baldé has been threatened. Egyptian blogger Tamer Mabrouk has been sued. Russian journalist Grigory Pasko has just spent four years in prison. His Uzbek colleague, Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov, has just been given a 10-year jail sentence. Mikhail Beketov, another Russian journalist, has lost a leg and several fingers as a result of an assault.

Bulgarian reporter Maria Nikolaeva was threatened with having acid thrown in her face. Filipino journalist Joey Estriber has been missing since 2006… What do these journalists and many others have in common?

They are or were covering environmental issues in countries where it is dangerous to do so. There is a lot at stake in the environment. The first step in protecting nature is to carry out a detailed survey of the state of the resources and the way they are used. On the basis of this analysis – in which the press plays a significant role – political decision-makers can then establish rules and norms for economic actors and the public.

The gathering of information alone is threatening for many companies, organised crime groups, governments and the various kinds of intermediaries that profit from misuse of the environment. Environmental concerns complicate their plans. As a result, investigative journalists and environmental activists are seen as an unwanted menace and even as enemies to be physically eliminated.

In many countries – especially, but not only, those that are not democracies – journalists who specialise in the environment are on the front line of a new war. The violence to which they are subjected concerns us all. It reflects the new issues that have assumed an enormous political and geostrategic importance. The conflicts between journalists and polluters are too many and too varied to be listed.

Sometimes a crisis can be sparked by no more than a journalist’s arrival at a sensitive location where his presence is not wanted. In southern China, for example, foreign journalists have been chased out of villages where most of the world’s discarded computers are stripped apart in an environmentally disastrous manner. In other cases, it is the publication of a detailed press report, with names and facts, that sparks an act of physical aggression or coercion.

This is what happened to Mikhail Beketov, who was beaten nearly to death by local government thugs who did not like his coverage of a plan to build a motorway through a Russian forest. The assailants are not always who you might expect. In most cases, the violence is the work of thugs in the pay of criminal entrepreneurs or corrupt politicians. But in some countries, as Reporters Without Borders has found, the local population paradoxically often supports those responsible for deforestation or polluting factories although it is the most direct victim. The reason is nonetheless obvious.

Those who get rich by despoiling resources are able, in the process, to provide work to those in most need. As a result, combating deforestation and pollution is often difficult and thankless work.

The fight is all the more unequal for usually being waged in countries where all the machinery of state seems to be an accomplice to the crimes and where the judicial apparatus, when it exists, does not play its role. Most cases linked to the environment never reach a conclusion in the courts. You can even say that most journalists are on their own when it comes to defending themselves. Hence the importance of making this struggle known and mobilising public opinion in its support.

Depletion of natural resources – a sensitive issue everywhere Natural resources are not inexhaustible. What is true underground is also true on the surface. The forest can regrow, but the forests that man is replanting today will never be as biologically rich as the primary forests that are hundreds of thousands of years old.

Hence the importance of conserving them.

That is what Lúcio Flávio Pinto, the founder and editor of Jornal Pessoal, a Brazilian bimonthly based in Belém, in the northern state of Pará, tried to do. He published a series of reports about deforestation in the Amazon. As a result, 33 lawsuits were brought against him. Lai Baldé, radio Bombolom-FM’s correspondent in Bissora, in northern Guinea-Bissau, took up the same cause. The day after the station broadcast a long report by him on illegal logging, he got an anonymous call offering advice: “Hey, brother! Why are you making such a big deal about this? We know that these people are doing something bad. But we have no choice. Don’t talk about this again. Be nice.”

In Burma, the question is dealt with in a more radical fashion. The military government’s censorship board has suppressed all references to illegal logging, making things easier for the Chinese companies that are logging on a large scale. Cambodia has lost half of its primary forest in the past 15 years although millions of dollars in foreign aid have been spent on protecting the Cardamom Mountains. Three journalists received death threats when they tried to follow up reports on deforestation by the NGO Global Witness that implicated associates of Prime Minister Hun Sen in large-scale illegal logging. Hun Sen’s brother Hun Neng said that, if any Global Witness representatives came to Cambodia, he would “hit them until their heads are broken.”

Radio Free Asia, one of the few media to cover this story in detail, was threatened by a man who went to the station’s bureau in Phnom Penh. And one of its reporters, Lem Piseth, had this conversation with an anonymous caller: “Is that you, Lem Piseth?” “Yes. Who are you?” “You are insolent, do you want to die?”

“Why are you insulting me like this?”

“Because of the business of the forest and you should know that there will not be enough land to bury you”. Piseth fled across the border into Thailand.

This kind of threat has to be taken seriously.

Filipino journalist Joey Estriber, a radio host in Aurora province (northeast of Manila), has been missing since March 2006. He was kidnapped by four men and never seen again. In his programme “Pag-usapan Natin” (Let’s talk about that) on a local radio, he often criticised the intensive logging in Aurora by companies with allies inside the government and he had participated in a campaign to have the permits of nine of these companies withdrawn.

The Indonesian island of Sumatra is being deforested as fast as almost anywhere in the world. One of the logging companies responsible, PT Lontar Papirup Pulp and Papers, is a subsidiary of Asia Pulp & Paper, itself a subsidiary of the powerful Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas. So it is not easy for journalists to draw attention to this ecological disaster.

Cyril Payen, the Southeast Asia correspondent of several French media, investigated illegal logging by PT Lontar Papirup Pulp and Papers, but he and his crew were arrested by company security guards on 10 July 2009 as they were filming trucks being loaded with timber. The company’s head of security tried to seize their video cassettes before handing them over to the local police, who continued to hold them until they were freed as a result of protests from the local media.Many inter-Lúcio Flávio Pinto has been exposing environmental devastation in Brazil for more than 40 years.

Logging on the Indonesian island of Sumatra national corporations do business with Sinar Mas without a thought for Sumatra’s deforestation.

Referring to Sinar Mas, Payen told Reporters Without Borders: “They buy journalists or threaten them with lawsuits. Although the Indonesian media are free, they do not do enough reporting on the rampant deforestation that is taking place.”

The Aral Sea’s destruction is another example of authorities trying to cover up the catastrophic waste of natural resources. Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov, an Uzbek journalist who had written extensively about the Aral Sea ecological disaster, was arrested in Karakalpakstan, a western autonomous region of Uzbekistan, on a drug trafficking charge in June 2008 and was summarily sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The verdict was quickly upheld by the local supreme court on 19 November 2008 despite procedural irregularities and enormous gaps in the prosecution case. The video the police made of the operation that led to Abdurakhmanov’s arrest strangely did not show the moment the drugs were allegedly found. The police also failed to say where he was supposedly obtaining the drugs or to whom he was supposedly selling them.

What we do know about Abdurakhmanov is that he wrote for many independent news websites, including Uznews, which called him “the last independent voice in Karakalpakstan,” and that he specialised in covering the impact of the Aral Sea’s disappearance on the local population’s livelihoods and health. Everything indicates that his arrest was deliberately planned in order to punish him for his reporting.

Back in Brazil, Vilmar Berna, the editor of the Niterói-based environmentalist daily Jornal do Meio Ambiente, which exposes clandestine overfishing and threats to protected marine life in Rio de Janeiro Bay, is a constant target of threats and intimidation attempts. A bloody, half-burnt body was dumped outside his home in May 2006. As if the meaning of that “message” was not sufficiently clear, an anonymous woman caller then warned him he could be killed soon. He filed a complaint with the Niterói police and hired two bodyguards.

But he could not afford to keep paying them and he no longer has protection. Fabrício Ribeiro Pimenta had to flee his home town in the neighbouring state of Espirito Santo after being assaulted on 30 July 2009, apparently at the behest of the owner of an illegal marble factory that he had repeatedly denounced in his reporting as source of toxic dust in a residential district.

There is no shortage of examples. In 2008 in the Republic of the Congo, residents of the village of Mbodji (60 km from Pointe-Noire) complained about the build-up of drilling waste at a nearby oilfield where the Italian company Eni Congo is drilling. After going there and doing a report, Télé Pour Tous (TPT) immediately found itself being pressured and threatened by the local authorities.

But this time, the local population demonstrated in support of the journalists and samples of the drilling waste were finally taken for laboratory analysis. They are still waiting for the results.

In Egypt, Trust Chemical Industries has for years been dumping unrecycled water into Lake Manzalah and the Suez Canal, near Port Said, while the government, out of fear or as a result of corruption, refused to intervene. Tamer Mabrouk, an ordinary blogger, investigated the issue and then took the risk of posting the results of his enquiries online. He was sued for libel in June 2008.

“I brought a lawsuit against the company myself, requesting its closure as a source of pollution,” Mabrouk said. “The court ruled that it was not competent to hear the case. At the same time, Trust Chemical Industries asked me to withdraw my suit in return for a sum of money. When I refused outright, they demanded that I issue a retraction.” A Port Said court fined Mabrouk 6,000 euros on 26 May 2009 – a fairly dissuasive message for someone who takes more than a year to earn that kind of money. He was then fired from his job.

In Côte d'Ivoire, people no longer seen to remember that large amounts of toxic waste from the Probo Koala, a tanker chartered by the Dutch company Trafigura, were dumped in and around Abidjan in September 2006. Gases emitted by the waste reportedly killed 10 people and injured 7,000. It was a big story for a while but now there is nothing in the newspapers. Concern about the environment seems to have evaporated. The Yopougon industrialists who pump chemical products into Abidjan’s lagoon are suspected of keeping the subject off-limits by slipping “envelopes” into some journalists’ pockets.

In China, Wu Lihong was sentenced to three years in prison in 2007 for alerting the Chinese and international media to the pollution of Lake Taihu, the third largest in China. In Internet posts, he blamed the uncontrolled dumping of industrial waste for the lake’s asphyxiation. Another example, China’s Propaganda Department, which is in charge of censorship, waiting 10 days in 2005 before allowing the media to report that the Songhua River had been contaminated with benzene, thereby endangering the lives of millions of people living on its banks.

Critics of nuclear power are also liable to be punished in China if they try to take their case to the media. Gansu province anti-nuclear campaigner Sun Xiaodi and his daughter were arrested in June 2009 on charges of “divulging state secrets abroad” and “spreading rumours” for disseminating information Pollution of Lake Taihu near the city of Wuxi, in Jiangsu province.

The dangers for journalists who expose environmental issues about radioactive contamination at uranium mine No. 792. Sun was sentenced the following month to two years of reeducation through work. His daughter was also sent toa camp.

In information posted online and provided to the foreign media, they had also accused officials in the Gansu district of Diebu of exaggerating the impact of the May 2008earthquake in their district in order to obtain more state aid. A former worker in mine No. 792, Sun has been campaigning tirelessly about the dangers of radioactive contamination for the past 20 years.

Peru is another glaring example. The Andean town of La Oroya is the fifth most contaminated place in the world because of a smelting complex operated by Doe Run Peru. Its 35,000 inhabitants are permanently exposed to heavy metals and gases. But you will not hear anyone talk about this scandal because the company has developed an effective method of surveillance using a network of “health workers” who patrol the town. Anyone talking to independent journalists risks losing their job and social benefits. The impoverished inhabitants are very hostile towards the press, which is seen as posing a threat to their only source of work. Doe Run Peru’s employees rejected an ecological rescue plan in order to be sure of keeping their jobs.

Even more emblematic is the case of Grigory Pasko, a former reporter for the Russian navy’s in-house newspaper Boevaya Vakhta who went on to write for the ecology magazine Ekologiya i Pravo about the neglect of the navy’s nuclear submarines and the resulting pollution. While still working for Boevaya Vakhta, Pasko had filmed footage of the Russian fleet dumping radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan. It was eventually aired by the Japanese TV station NHM, causing an international outcry.

After spending 20 months in prison from 1997 to 1999, he was tried and sentenced to four years in prison in 2001 on charges of spying and high treason. He was accused of illegally attending a meeting of the navy high command in order to gain access to classified information and pass it to Japanese news media. He appealed against his conviction before the Russian supreme court and then took his case to the European Court of Human Rights. In 2002, he was awarded the Reporters Without Borders-Fondation de France prize for his fight against censorship.

Even defending protected natural areas is risky. The Sofia-based weekly Politika ran a story by Maria Nikolaeva on 9 February 2007 about an illegal real estate development project in the Strandzha national park, Bulgaria’s largest nature reserve. The same day, two men went to Nikolaeva’s office and told her: “You know full well you shouldn’t write things like this. And you know what happens to curious journalists, they get acid thrown at them.”

A journalist based in Khimki, a satellite town outside Moscow, Mikhail Beketov has criticised the local authorities for years and has established a reputation as a defender of Khimki Forest, which is threatened by the construction of a motorway betweenMoscow and St. Petersburg. His car was set on fire in May 2007. Local prosecutors brought a criminal libel case against him in February 2008. At the start of November 2008, he had been drafting a letter to the Russian authorities to accompany a petition signed by Khimki residents opposing the motorway, but he never posted it. He was beaten and left for dead outside his home on The Peruvian city of La Oroya, the site an enormous smelting complex, is one of the world’s 10 most contaminated places.

He survived, but only after spending days in a coma and having a leg and several fingers amputated. One of Beketov’s lawyers, Stanislas Markelov, was murdered in the centre of Moscow on 19 January of this year. The Moscow-based daily Novaya Gazeta published Beketov’s letter on 18 February. But the inhabitants of Khimki never saw the issue. Someone bought up all the copies that were meant to be distributed there. Khimki mayor Victor Strelchenko, the originator of a real estate project that Beketov had opposed, was reelected in March.

In Sri Lanka, Tamil journalists have been prevented from investigating the impact of the military presence on the Jaffna Peninsula’s natural areas and in some cases have been threatened for trying to do so. An environmentalist writer called Ayngaranesan said: “Since 2006, I have been seeking information about the deforestation in certain militaryc ontrolled areas. The military have totally disrupted the ecosystem for security reasons. I recently wanted to write an article about the environmental impact of the refugee camps set up by the government but the editor said the subject was too sensitive.”

Finally, in Namibia, where very attractive nature reserves are available to tourists, some things are not meant to be seen. Jim Wilckens, a British investigative journalist working for the Eco-Storm news agency, and his South African cameraman, Bart Smithers, were arrested on 16 July 2009 while filming the culling of baby seals on the coast.

They were eventually released after being fined 5,000 Namibian dollars (443 euros) each on charges of violating the maritime resources law by entering a restricted area without permission.

A long-term struggle

French photographer, filmmaker and ecologist Yann Arthus-Bertrand and a 10-member crew were doing a report for the programme “Seen from the sky” about the controversial construction of a dam at Yacyreta, near Posadas (the capital of the Argentine province of Misiones) when they were arrested at Puerto Iguazú airport on 20 February 2008.

The suspicions of the Argentine police had been aroused by their meeting with inhabitants of the village of El Brete who opposed the dam. The helicopter they had chartered was forbidden to take off and they ended up being held for five days before finally being released on bail.

Journalists everywhere take risks into order to make others more aware. They must keep going, despite all the various kinds of harassment to which they are exposed. This aim of this report is to denounce the indifference of authorities and governments that too readily neglect the protection of journalists who are defending the right of their fellow citizens to be informed about attacks on the environment.

Mayarith left RFA to join Soy Sopheap's pro-CPP Deum Ampil Radio

High-profile former RFA reporter accepted to work for Deum Ampil Radio

Source: Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

Mr. Mayarith, a former Radio Free Asia's (RFA) reporter has accepted Mr. Soy Sopheap's offer to work for his upcoming Deum Ampil Radio, a few hours after the offer was made on the 5th of July.

Mr. Mayarithh unexpectedly resigned from Radio Free Asia on 2nd of July after serving RFA for more than a decade.

Mr. Soy Sopheap, publisher of Deum Ampil newspaper and the owner of upcoming Deum Ampil Radio, said he will offer the role of Director of Deum Ampil Radio to Mr. Mayarith.

Mr. Soy Sopheap said his radio will be professional, neutral and unbiased toward any political party. The Radio will deliver fast news to the listeners.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: RFA & Lem Pichpisey

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

Journalist Recounts Flight After Death Threat [from the family of the thieves of the Nation]

By Taing Sarada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
02 February 2009

[Editor’s note: Lem Pichpisey, a 40-year-old reporter for Radio Free Asia, arrived in Norway under UN protection last month following reported death threats and a flight with his family from Cambodia last year. The government and spokesmen for Prime Minister Hun Sen have repeatedly denied allegations of involvement in illegal logging, a subject of Lem Pichpisey’s reporting ahead of the threat. Lem Pichpisey spoke to VOA Khmer by phone.]

Q. Can you tell us briefly about why you fled to Norway?

A. I decided to leave my beloved Cambodia because I received a death threat, when someone put a bullet outside my Battambang house to scare me. My daughter found the bullet when she was sweeping dirt in front of the house. We thought this was the last sign and that we had to leave Cambodia, and I should give up on the profession of journalism.

Someone had threatened my life before the bullet in front of my house. The first death threat I received was while I was investigating and reporting about massive illegal deforestation at Prey Long, in Tum Rinh commune, San Dan district, Kampong Thom province. After that, I received a death threat while I was reporting this issue for Radio Free Asia, and it was exactly the same as the [government-banned] Global Witness report published June 1.

When I verified my investigation with that report, it was exactly the same on illegal deforestation, which involved Prime Minister Hun Sen’s family members and high-ranking military officials of Military Division 70 and a group of Hun Sen’s bodyguards, and especially Hun Sen’s in-laws. They were involved in this destruction, according to my investigation and the Global Witness report.

Q. When you first received a death threat, where did you go? You then returned to Cambodia. Why?

A. I escaped to Thailand, because I thought that at least Thailand had more democracy than Cambodia. The reason I came back to Cambodia was that I had committed myself to work fighting for democracy and the rule of law after I received the knowledge from US-provided training about international journalism and media management. After that training, I wanted to show my gratitude by sacrificing myself to training and bring about human rights, democracy and real freedom of expression to the Cambodian people.

Because I still loved the profession of journalism, I left Thailand and came back to Cambodia and told my boss at Radio Free Asia in Washington that I could not live in Thailand anymore, that I needed to go back to Cambodia. Some people had asked me why I had to come back to Cambodia, didn’t I feel scared? I told them that I felt scared, but I needed to ask the International Human Rights organization to pressure the government, and when the situation calmed down a bit, I could go back to Cambodia and continue my journalism.

Q. What happened with the second death threat? How many threats were there? And where did you flee for you life?

A. I received another death threat early in November 2007. I escaped to Thailand again because I had published Free Press Magazine, a compilation of many reports about illegal logging, the death of dancer Piseth Pilika and the report of Global Witness. That was a legal magazine, because I had permission from the Ministry of Information already. The police came to my office in Phnom Penh to confiscate more than 2,000 magazines without telling me ahead of time.

We knew that the police had come to my office to copy some documents, and I was also told by some friends working in the government that the government sent secret agents to investigate me. We knew that the police came to check my background at my home in Battambang province. At that point, I was scared, forcing me to leave Cambodia.

Q. In Thailand, which organization protected you?

A. I received a lot of support from international human rights organizations, including [UN High Commissioner for Human Rights] in Cambodia. I want to clarify that the protection is not against the Cambodian government. But it is a sign that the freedoms of expression and media in Cambodia are still weak, and journalists still suffer from death threats, persecution and intimidation.

So those international organizations issued press releases or statements of protection and urged the government to end human rights violations against activists and journalists. Some of the international organizations that issued press releases to support me were the Asian Human Rights Commission, based in Hong Kong, Licadho, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, Adhoc, journalism clubs and the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance and others. That meant there was a spirit of support from national and international non-governmental organizations.

Political Cartoon: Freedom of Speech in Cambodia

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

RFA's Lim Pichpisey flees Cambodia after death threat

Reporter flees Cambodia after death threat

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

New York, May 1, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the latest in a series of anonymous threats received by Radio Free Asia (RFA) investigative reporter Lem Pichpisey in Cambodia.

On April 10, Pichpisey’s 11-year-old daughter found six AK-47 rifle bullets placed neatly in a row in front of his family’s house in western Battambang province. According to RFA Senior Editor Daniel Southerland, such a warning could be construed as a death threat in a Cambodian context. Pichpisey was investigating a drug trafficking case involving a casino, a high-ranking police officer, and the murder of a drug suspect in the western border town of Poi Pet, according to Southerland.

The next day, Pichpisey and his family fled Battambang for the capital, Phnom Penh, where he had worked in RFA’s offices as an editor. Due to continued concerns for his personal safety, Pichpisey recently fled Cambodia and is now in an undisclosed country.

“We call upon Prime Minister Hun Sen to immediately launch an independent inquiry into the threats made against Radio Free Asia reporter Lem Pichpisey,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “In recent years, Cambodia has repeatedly claimed that it respects and protects press freedom. Now it must back those words with actions.”

Pichpisey often tackles tough stories, including recent hard-hitting reports on illegal logging, judicial corruption, police abuses, and politically charged land disputes. He was forced to flee Cambodia for Thailand twice in 2007 after receiving death threats related to his reports on illegal logging.

In January and February, Pichpisey received anonymous text messages on his cell phone warning him to “watch out,” with requests to meet the message senders at different hotels in Battambang province. He did not go to any of the proposed meetings, according to RFA editor Southerland.

Radio Free Asia’s Reporter Received Death Threats

An angry Hun Sen pointing at RFA's reporter Um Sarin in front of the National Assembly, calling him "insolent" and "rude" (Photo: Sralanh Khmer newspaper)

11th April 2008
By Pov Ponlok Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization On the web at http://khmerization.blogspot.com

The Cambodian Center for Human Right (CCHR) and the Cambodian Journalist Club have issued two separate statements concurrently expressing their concerns about the safety of a Radio Free Asia reporter who had, in the past, filed numerous reports on corruption in the judicial systems, reports about land disputes between the people and the rich and the powerful people, reports about illegal logging and about irregularities relating to the complaints of the people.

Mr. Lem Piseth, a Radio Free Asia reporter based in the northwest of the country, has received numerous death threats through anonymous telephone calls and text messages.

In just the beginning of April, Lem Piseth had already received at least two death threats from anonymous caller and on the 10th of April, unknown person or persons had placed 6 bullets in the front gate of his home in Battambang city.

CCHR and the Cambodian Journalist Club have said that they are concerned about the safety of the reporter and appealed to the authority to take measures to ensure that his safety is protected.