By Mayarith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Two days after the closing of the Cambodge Soir newspaper, various reactions came from both national and international opinions, as well as from the French embassy in Cambodia, and the Reporters Without Borders organization, asking for intervention from the representative of the Francophone organization.
Kong Sothanarith, representative of Cambodian employees working at Cambodge Soir, said that the successive reactions will shed some light and lead to a resolution in the dispute. “Because of the numerous reactions coming from readers and a number of organizations, both at the national and international levels, the French embassy was pushed to request for a restart of the negotiations. We hope that these negotiations will take place and we hope that we could reach some optimistic conclusions.”
The closing of Cambodge Soir took place after the employees of the French-language newspaper opposed the firing of Soren Seelow, a French journalist, who wrote an article about the Global Witness report on “Cambodia’s Family Trees” (“Family of the thieves of the Nation” in Khmer) which detailed about government officials and their families who are involved in illegal logging in Kompong Thom.
Philippe Monin, a director of Cambodge Soir, admitted to his employees that he is an advisor of Chan Sarun, the Minister of Agriculture who is named by Global Witness for his involvement in illegal logging corruption, and the latter was not pleased by the publication of Soren Seelow’s article.
Philippe Monin criticized Soren Seelow’s article by saying that it lacked professionalism, and that was the reason why Soren Seelow was fired. Soren Seelow said that his firing was unfair.
The closure of Cambodge Soir generated comments from various sources, and (hopefully) these reactions will provide some hope to a settlement on this issue. “We reach a point where there is a linkage … and we are fighting together to put to an end the closing of Cambodge Soir. We hope that Cambodge Soir will reopen again.”
RFA could not contact Philippe Monin for his reaction on this issue.
Kong Sothanarith, representative of Cambodian employees working at Cambodge Soir, said that the successive reactions will shed some light and lead to a resolution in the dispute. “Because of the numerous reactions coming from readers and a number of organizations, both at the national and international levels, the French embassy was pushed to request for a restart of the negotiations. We hope that these negotiations will take place and we hope that we could reach some optimistic conclusions.”
The closing of Cambodge Soir took place after the employees of the French-language newspaper opposed the firing of Soren Seelow, a French journalist, who wrote an article about the Global Witness report on “Cambodia’s Family Trees” (“Family of the thieves of the Nation” in Khmer) which detailed about government officials and their families who are involved in illegal logging in Kompong Thom.
Philippe Monin, a director of Cambodge Soir, admitted to his employees that he is an advisor of Chan Sarun, the Minister of Agriculture who is named by Global Witness for his involvement in illegal logging corruption, and the latter was not pleased by the publication of Soren Seelow’s article.
Philippe Monin criticized Soren Seelow’s article by saying that it lacked professionalism, and that was the reason why Soren Seelow was fired. Soren Seelow said that his firing was unfair.
The closure of Cambodge Soir generated comments from various sources, and (hopefully) these reactions will provide some hope to a settlement on this issue. “We reach a point where there is a linkage … and we are fighting together to put to an end the closing of Cambodge Soir. We hope that Cambodge Soir will reopen again.”
RFA could not contact Philippe Monin for his reaction on this issue.
4 comments:
Histoire finie, if the allegations are true to say that Chan Sarun is involved in the illegal logging and the director Phillipe Monin of the Cambodge Soir is his advisor, then Cambodge Soir should be closed forever. How could I trust to read the news from such an establishment that has a director who receives dirty money from a corrupted government official? There will not be any unbiased news coming from there....
Who cares??? While about 2 million innocent Cambodians were slaughterd and no one cares at all.
i care, because now Chan Sarun and everyone involved know thatCambodian and the world knew his dirty hand and his money can't speak and do everything as before. it is only the begining guy. be prepared for more.
Really the person who should be fired is the Cambodian Soir's director Philippe Monin for being the advisor of Mr Chan Sarun. If any negotiation to have Cambodian Soir reopen must exclude him in the job, otherwise Cambodian Soir editorial reputation would be tarnished by his roles to the Minister.
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