Vietnam jails journalist for 7 years for blackmail

Friday, August 26, 2011

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A journalist in Vietnam has been sentenced to seven years in prison for blackmailing a cement company.

The state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper says Phan Ha Binh, who works for the Tien Phong newspaper, was convicted of extortion at a one-day trial Thursday in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Friday's report, Binh told the judge he wrote three negative stories about the cement company in 2010 and that he told the company he wouldn't write additional stories if it paid him $10,000. He told the company that for another $3,000, he'd write positive stories.

War Journalists to Get Reunion in Cambodia Next Month

Chhang Song, a chameleon-politician (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

2010-03-24
Xinhua

Some 40 foreign war journalists who were covering in Cambodia in early 1970s will get together in Phnom Penh next month, Chhang Song, former information minister said Wednesday.

He said for the first time since that horrible war, foreign war correspondents are returning to Phnom Penh for a reunion from April 20 to 23.

The event is organized by Chhang Song, the last Information Minister in the Lon Nol government who now divides his time between Cambodia and the United States and acts as a senior adviser to both the government and public-at-large.

For those who covered the Cambodian War between 1970 and 1975, the memories have always been particularly painful.

Chhang Song said a total of 36 foreign and Cambodian journalists were killed or disappeared, more than in the war in neighboring Vietnam.

Assisting Chhang Song in his quest is former Associated Press ( AP) correspondent U.S.-born Carl Robinson who covered the Cambodian War from neighboring Saigon, today's Ho Chi Minh City, and now lives in Brisbane, Australia.

While several reunions have been held over the past 15 years in Saigon, this is the first one in Phnom Penh. And, considering their age, this reunion will most likely also be the last one.

"Covering the war was so painful that many, even now, are unable to look back on that period," explains Robinson, who has only re-visited Cambodia in the past couple of years.

Cambodian government has granted permission for the construction of a memorial to the journalists who died in Cambodia while covering the civil war in the 1970s, according to local media report on Monday.

The memorial will be located in the Daun Penh district gardens opposite Raffles Hotel le Royal, it said.

Memorial for killed journalists

Mar 21, 2010
AFP

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA announced plans on Sunday to build a monument to dozens of foreign and local journalists killed covering the country's 1970-75 war won by the communist Khmer Rouge regime.

A ceremony ahead of its construction will be held next month, coinciding with the 35th anniversary of the regime's victory and a reunion of correspondents who covered the war, said government spokesman Khieu Kanharith. 'The monument is to pay tribute to those reporters and photojournalists killed... and to attract their family members and relatives to visit Cambodia,' he told AFP.

At least 37 journalists were killed or disappeared during the brutal conflict between the US-backed Lon Nol government and Khmer Rouge guerrillas supported by North Vietnamese fighters.

Mr Khieu said officials have not yet decided where in Phnom Penh to put up the monument, dedicated to reporters from Japan, France, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, India, Laos, Australia and Cambodia.

Chhang Song, former information minister for the Lon Nol government, told AFP he had commissioned the monument and was organising the reunion of journalists, to be held on April 20-23.

Several similar correspondent reunions have been held in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, but this would be the first such event in Cambodia, organisers said in a statement.

War correspondents plan Cambodia reunion

The event will include correspondents who covered Cambodia from 1970, when the Lon Nol government was inaugurated, to 1975, when the regime collapsed and gave way to the Khmer Rouge. [AFP]

Thursday, March 04, 2010
Radio Australia News

A group of war correspondents plans to hold a reunion next month in Phnom Penh in memory of colleagues who died in Cambodia during the Indo-China War in the early 1970s.

One of the organizers of the event is Chhang Song, an information minister during the US-backed Lon Nol government. [KI-Media note: Chhang Song is currently an advisor of Hun Xen, even though he lives in Long Beach, California]

He says the event will include correspondents who covered Cambodia from 1970, when the Lon Nol government was inaugurated, to 1975, when the regime collapsed and gave way to the Khmer Rouge.

Another organizer, Carl Robinson, a former Associated Press correspondent says while there had been reunions in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, among war correspondents who covered the Vietnam War, this will be the first in Cambodia.

Mr Robinson, who was based in Saigon from 1968 through 1975, says between April 1970 and April 1975, 33 foreign journalists and 21 Cambodian journalists were killed or went missing while covering stories.

Ministry of Information backs up the reporters

Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

The ministry on information (MoInf) issued a statement to support the forum of newspaper editors which was organized at the end of last week, and which demanded the use of the information law rather than the UNTAC-era criminal code against reporters. In its statement dated 01 January 2008, the MoInf expressed its support to the forum demand to use the information law in cases involving the journalism profession, with the exception of accusations made against individuals outside of their profession. This is a new twist for reporters, allowing them to free themselves from the pressure exerted by the executive branch in the past 12 years, which used the UNTAC-era code against them. The support declaration by the MoInf is a positive sign for the reporters who have to face with the executive branch of the government which uses the outdated UNTAC-era criminal code against the reporters (practicing their profession).

In Cambodia, Journalists Learn How to Report on Justice for Genocide

Cambodian reporters attend an Internews training in Siem Reap on how to cover the Khmer Rouge tribunals. (Photo: Thierry Cruvellier/Internews)

Press Releases

Internews

(August 3, 2007) As many as 1.7 million people are believed to have died of starvation, disease or execution during Cambodia’s notorious Khmer Rouge regime. As the long-awaited UN-backed tribunal prepares for the first trials, Internews is training Cambodian journalists to cover the process of bringing the surviving leaders of the 1975-79 regime to justice.

“The Cambodian press plays a crucual role in informing the public on the Khmer Rouge trials,” said French journalist Thierry Cruvellier, who has covered war crimes tribunals in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Colombia. “Cambodian citizens need access to accurate, informed reporting to be assured that victims of the Khmer Rouge are receiving some measure of justice.”

Led by Cruvellier, Internews Cambodia has begun a series of workshops on the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT) that has reached more than 160 newspaper and radio reporters, editors and news directors in Phnom Penh and the provinces. This is the first in-country, hands-on training for Cambodian journalists on covering this topic.

Training has provided Cambodian journalists with background on international criminal justice, a better understanding of the specific judicial process at the KRT, and basic training on how to report on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes trials at the pre-trial stage.

“I know the KRT law and its legal process better,” said a Pailin-based newspaper reporter, who recently published a KRT-related front page story. “I can improve my story ideas on KRT cases. I dare write any story about this court which in the past I dared not. Now I know its law, I am not intimidated by it. I just keep writing on it.”

The training has been received enthusiastically. One editor, whose reporters had never been trained in court procedures, reported that he had noticed an immediate improvement in trial stories.

Current workshops are focusing on procedures to be followed in pre-trial investigations culminating in trials expected to begin in mid 2008. They also discuss specific challenges for reporters covering war crimes trials, such as witness protection and presumption of innocence. The training will expand to help Cambodian journalists improve general coverage of police and court matters.

Cruvellier, editor of the online newspaper International Justice Tribunal, which covers war crimes justice news, joined Internews Cambodia as a consultant in April. Cambodian Senior Resident Journalism Adviser Mike Fowler, a lawyer with stateside experience as a prosecutor and defense attorney, will join Cruvellier and Phann Ana in preparing and presenting these workshops. The program is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia.

Internews Cambodia is also planning to take weekly feeds of court action provided by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) public affairs office and produce high-quality video reports to bring news of the tribunal to remote parts of the country.

This effort will build on Internews’ experience in Rwanda, producing newsreel reports on justice processes for the Rwandan genocide, and airing these in prisons, community halls and churches around the country. No other organization has similar experience of such undertakings. Internews has also provided coverage of the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Three reporters arrested, accused of transporting illegal logs

17 July 2007
By Mao Sotheany
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

Three reporters based in Ratanakiri province were arrested by the joint police force combating illegal logging. The three are currently being detained at the office of the district forestry department in O’Yadaw district in the afternoon of Monday 16 July, and they are accused of transporting illegal logs and planning to take them to sell across the border in Vietnam.

Rè Ray, the Ratanakiri police chief, told Ratha Visal, RFA reporter, about the names the three reporters: “There were three reporters: Suong Ny, Kong Sam Ath, and Kim Saroeun. Suong Ny is with the federation of Cambodian newspapers, Kong Sam Ath is with The Cambodia Daily, and Kim Saroeun is with the Kamneut Khmer (Khmer birth) newspaper. They were arrested at 4:00 PM at the O’Yadaw city.”

Rè Ray claimed that this is the first time that illegal logs were transported by a pickup truck involving reporters in Ratanakiri province.

Rè Ray said: “The joint force of O’Yadaw district, including the forestry department officials, police officers, and military police officers. (During the arrest, we found) 25 pieces of log, each measuring about 60-centimeter long. We handed all of them to the forestry department, and the three were found in the car. This is a strange affair because we never saw reporters transporting logs like this before.”

Regarding the arrest of the three reporters, Vong Somethy, director of the O’Yadaw forestry department, confirmed that when the joint O’Yadaw district force arrested the car, the car owner said that the 25 log pieces belonged to the three reporters sitting in the car, but the reporters denied that they were not theirs.

Vong Somethy said: “First, they said that (the logs) belong to the reporters, now the reporters said that they are not theirs, but that they belong to the car owner instead. At first, the car owner said that they belong to the reporters who rented the car for $100. When the reporters said that the logs belong to the car owner, the latter did not say anything because he is afraid that the reporters would not pay him.”

RFA could not contact the three reporters accused by the police. However, Uk Kim Seng, the advisor of the ministry of information in charge of national news said last night that he received the information about the arrest of the three reporters, and if indeed, the three reporters are involved in illegal log transport as charged by the O’Yadaw district authority, their actions would not be deemed compatible with the ethics of their journalistic profession.

Uk Kim Seng said: “I received the report that reporters based in Ratanakiri province were arrested by the O’Yadaw district authority and charged with transportation of illegal logs. I think they are not acting as reporters, because reporters report various information for the public to know, Therefore, this action is far from their professional ethics. Because this issue (illegal logging) is a hot topic in the Northeast area, I think that whatever the law deemed necessary, the case should follow the legal rule.”