Sacrava's Political Cartoon: A Monkey called So Khun

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

Government wants callers’ ID [-Big Brother is watching you!]

Guess whose phone this is?

Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Telecommunications Minister So Khun had issued an inter-ministerial directive that requires telecom service providers to turn over the identity information of their subscribers and users to the Interior Ministry in a bid to aid crime-fighting, Interior Ministry officials said yesterday.

Chhay Sinareth, head of the security department at the ministry, announced the directive, which has equivalent force in law to a prakas, at a national police commission meet.

“The police have made victorious crackdowns in over 2,850 cases of kidnapping and life-threatening crimes in 2011 by using evidence from telecommunications systems including mobile phones and the internet,” he said.

“The number of crimes was remarkably reduced under the good collaboration between the expert ministries and mobile networks and internet companies in searching for, and timely crackdowns on, the criminals.”

Even newborn babies in Nambodia subscribe to mobile phone services???

Cambodia has 14 million subscribers of mobile phone services: minister

PHNOM PENH, December 19 (Xinhua) -- There are about 14 million subscribers of mobile phone services in Cambodia, or 98 percent of the country's 14.3 million people, So Khun, minister of Posts and Telecommunications, said on Monday.

The number of mobile phone users had been increasing exponentially and the total number was about 14 million now, up from 10.9 million users by the end of last year, he said during a meeting with Vietnamese Minister of Information and Telecommunications Nguyen Bac Son.

Currently, Cambodia has 8 mobile phone operators: Cam GSM ( Mobitel), Mfone, Hello Axiata Company Limited, CADCOMMS (QB), Metfone (Viettel), GT-Tell (Excell), Sotelco (Beeline), and Smart Mobile.

Groups Warns Against Web Censorship

A human rights group on Tuesday called for greater Internet freedoms in Cambodia, as more and more people are finding their way online.

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer

Phnom Penh

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights on Tuesday called for greater Internet freedoms in Cambodia, as more and more people are finding their way online.

In its report, “Internet Censorship: the ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression in Cambodia,” the group warned of a “recent trend toward Internet censorship and the grave implications for freedom of expression in Cambodia.”

Ou Virak, president of the center, said the government must work hard to development protective regulations for Internet use, as it spreads across the country, “by ensuring that old barriers are not applied to a new frontier.”

Telecommunications Minister So Khun told VOA Khmer in a phone interview Tuesday the ministry does not condone Internet censorship. (sic!)

However, the ministry did come under fire earlier this year after it held a meeting with Internet service providers and encouraged them to block sites that were counter to Cambodia’s interests.

Ugly face of CENSORSHIP in Cambodia has a name: SIENG SITHY and SO KHUN

Sieng Sithy's drunk photo shown on Flickr

Sieng Sithy's (center) goofy photo shown on Flickr

CPP So Khun

KI-Media ban confusion

Thursday, 17 February 2011
Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications should clarify its request that 10 internet service providers block access to several anti-government websites, because the government has no such policy, Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said today.

Khieu Kanharith said he had not been aware of the request – an email sent to 10 ISPs from an official at MPTC, obtained by The Post – but that it did not represent government policy.

“An email is not an official letter,” he said, adding that he could still access KI-Media, which he views “every two or three hours”.

“It surprised me that some ISP organisers accepted the email as an official letter,” Khieu Kanharith said.

Sieng Sithy, deputy director of the Directorate of Telecommunications Policy Regulation at the MPTC, wrote an email to Ezecom, Metfone, Citylink, Digi, AngkorNet, WiCam, TC, Camnet, Online and Camintel thanking them for “cooperation” in blocking access to several websites, including KI-Media, Khmerization and a site featuring the art of political cartoonist Sacrava.

Rights group condemns "online censorship" by Cambodian government

Feb 16, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - A human rights group on Wednesday condemned the apparent blocking of several websites critical of the Cambodian government, saying the move marked 'a significant milestone in the march toward a more oppressive media environment.'

Naly Pilorge, the director of the LICADHO rights group, said the denials by internet service providers that they were doing the government's bidding were 'not fooling anyone.'

The providers 'can play with words all they want, but at the end of the day, this still amounts to censorship,' she said.

The government has repeatedly said it has not ordered the providers to block access to websites, including KI-Media, a news aggregator and comment site that strongly favours the political opposition and is often critical of the ruling party.

But several websites critical of the government have gone offline in recent weeks. Service providers have officially denied blocking the sites or being asked to do so by the government.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The Blog-Monster

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

Gov't has no plan to shut down KI-Media: So Khun

DAP-News reported in its frontpage that So Khun, the minister of Post and Telecommunication, indicated the Hun Xen's government has no goal and no plan to shut down KI-Media.

Cambodian Telecoms sector could bring in $500 mln revenue annually for gov't [... if there's no embezzlement!]

PHNOM PENH, June 2 (Xinhua) -- With a rising number of mobile phone and internet users, Cambodia is gearing up income collection measures to help the government reap hundreds of millions of dollars from the telecoms sector in the near future, local media reported Monday.

"If we manage the sector well and take VAT (Value Add Tax), the government could one day earn 400 million to 500 million U.S. dollars annually," So Khun, posts and telecommunication minister, was quoted as saying in the Mekong Times newspaper.

He added that the government is currently streamlining its taxation process to build on current annual revenues, which he hopes will reach 70-80 million U.S. dollars this year.

Cambodia currently has around 2.5 million mobile phone and over 37,500 landline and internet users, though telecommunications revenues in recent years have sagged to 31-36 million U.S. dollars.

The figures are low due to poor income collection, said analysts, who argue that in 1995 revenues were greater at 46 million U.S. dollars.