DPA
"... Sam Rithy Doung Hak said popular anti-government websites and political cartoons criticizing could be easily censored if the laws were introduced"Phnom Penh - Cambodian journalists on Wednesday accused the government of trying to censor the internet with new legislation they say aims at silencing public criticism. Sam Rithy Doung Hak, a monitor for the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists (CAPJ), said proposed laws to regulate audiovisual content on the internet could jeopardize Cambodia's relatively liberal media environment.
"These audiovisual laws will cover sound and pictures published on the internet, which I am convinced is driven by the government's intention to censor the internet," he said.
Information Ministry officials said earlier this week the laws, which are due to be passed later this year, were designed to prevent potentially defamatory or slanderous material from appearing on the internet.
But Sam Rithy Doung Hak said popular anti-government websites and political cartoons criticizing could be easily censored if the laws were introduced.
"We cannot say clearly how this is going to affect journalists' work since we have not seen the details of this law, but it is our intention to show the international community that it could be used as some sort of government tool to permanently scare online journalists so they don't go too far in criticizing the government," he said.
When asked to rate the current state of media freedom in Cambodia, he said, "our level of freedom is perhaps the best among the worst and the worst among the best."
Cambodia is currently ranked 128th on the US-based Freedom House organization's 2008 press freedom list - a "partially free" ranking shared with Georgia, Kenya and Paraguay.
8 comments:
Silencing the public?
Nonesense, government doesn't do that. They protect the public from nonsense spams and scams.
There is no formula for all. The restriction varied depending on the average people abilities to fence for themselves from scams and spams.
In the US, UK, ..., and AU, the restriction is not needed because the average people is highly educated, but that is not the case in Cambodia, Lao, Birma, ..., and Afganistan. We are talking 6th grade educated. How can the government not looking out for them?
Pour etre honnete il y a combiens de Khmers de l'interieur pour accéder à la nouvelle technologie Combien combien aller vers le Nord du cambodge Ce que le gouvernement Khmer devra prendre comme initiative supprimer la langue Khmere et choisir la langue VIETNAMIENNE comme langue offcielle en attendant l'officalisation le camdoge comme une province vietnamienne . Voila la bonne résolution pour la nouvelle année 2009 Merci Samdach Ta et la soit disante REine du cambodge la vraie fausse khmere la fausse vraie Vietnamienne Monique ZIZI
As an older generation Khmer live in Europe, I did not well understand from some comments and the value of language. This internet gave us informations about Cambodia and for us to stay in touch with our country. For the good reason, I support the restriction of scams and spams.
Actually, the internet censorship only block spams and scams from coming into Cambodia. It does not block any news or other program going out of Cambodia.
You mother fucker PhD with no schooling and you mother fucker want to limited people knowledge?
May your children and grand children borned stupid and lightning strike your who with evil intention!
Fucking Pimp (9:50) want to turn Cambodia into a capital of prostitute.
All porns, spams, and scams, must be censored from the internet to save Cambodia future.
Don't listen to Ah Pimp-oversea!
9:12 AM if only ah pimp undersea stop selling little girls to foreigner. Your fucking household is an already PROSTITUTE.
Ha!Ha! Ah thork tiep undersea selling KOUN KHMER to foreigner to get rich...haha! Pouk Ah thork tiep, this how Ah undersea run the country..ha!ha! this is why your Viet-whore mother and your Viet-whore sister are all working in SVY PAK BROTHEL...haha! your stinky whore mother fucking in the street...haha!
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