Press Freedom clouded by jail sentence

Hang Chakra

01 May 2010
Editorial by Pen Bona
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

"...this situation [the jailing of journalists for expressing their opinions] is clearly a contradiction to Hun Xen’s win-win policy"

On 03 May, just like many other countries in the world, Cambodia will celebrate the World Press Freedom Day which is the basis of democracy itself. In Cambodia, freedom of the press has notably moved forward during the past two decades, but jail sentence still haunts journalists and it is a dark cloud casting its ominous shadow over press freedom in Cambodia.

Cambodia is a country that saw a noticeable progress in the freedom of the press, not just in comparison to the war period, but it also earns a good mark among the countries in the region.

However, the main obstacle to the progress of the press in Cambodia stems from the fact that journalists are still facing jail sentence for writing their opinions. The case of Hang Chakra, Editor-in-chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper who was recently released from jail during the Cambodia New Year, is a sober reminder of this situation. This pro-opposition journalist was sentenced to 1-year of jail term for disinformation under a lawsuit brought up the government lawyer.

In reality, journalists do not enjoy any special immunity and they are just like any other citizens who would be responsible in front of the law, i.e. if a journalist commits a crime, he will face a criminal sentence just like anybody else. However, in order to guarantee the democratic freedom of expression, the law also protects journalists from being sent to jail for expressing their opinions.

There are three factors that guarantee Cambodian journalists from being sentenced to jail term:

1- Following the 1993 election, Cambodia selected to follow the path of plural democracy. Under this condition, freedom of expression is itself protected by the Constitution.
2- To guarantee the strengthening of the freedom of the press, the National Assembly ratified the information law which went into effect since 1995. This law clearly guarantees that no journalists should be arrested or sent to jail for expressing their opinions.
3- PM Hun Xen publicly announced that defamation cases must not be sentenced by jail term. Hun Xen’s declaration was aimed at avoiding jail term sentence handed down to journalists.

Unfortunately, every time when journalists are being sued, the factors above are usually neglected and journalists ended up being sentenced for disinformation – a criminal offense – and they ended being sent to jail as before. In reality, even if the information law protects journalists from jail sentence, the law also prescribes heavy fines in cases involving defamation or disinformation.

What is surprising is that the suing party tried very hard to evade the information law and they only want to use the criminal law to ensure that the accused journalists are being sent to jail. So the question is: who benefits from this issue? The real answer is that nobody wins and everybody loses: for the accused journalist, he ended up wasting time and income to support his family; as for the government which allows such jail sentence to take place, it comes under severe criticism from all corners, the government’s action leads to a cheapening of Cambodia’s democracy and rule of law.

Furthermore, this situation is clearly a contradiction to Hun Xen’s win-win policy. Therefore, the dark clouds that cast their ominous shadow on Cambodia’s democracy through the jailing of journalists should no longer be allowed!