Plight of journalists in Cambodia

At least 10 journalists have been killed in Cambodia since 1993, according to Licadho, a local human rights group. Above: funeral of journalist Khim Sambo (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Journalists in Cambodia face 'censorship, threats and intimidation', despite high press freedom ranking

Sunday 25 March 2012

Kate Hodal

guardian.co.uk

Cambodia ranks highest for press freedom among its south-east Asian neighbours, according to Reporters without Borders' 2011 Press Freedom Index. But journalists in the country repeatedly face censorship, threats, intimidation, suspicious "accidents", defamation lawsuits, arrest and, sometimes, murder.

At least 10 journalists have been killed in Cambodia since 1993 (the year the government adopted a new constitution), says the human rights group Licadho.

The group's research shows that shootings, grenade attacks and car "accidents" – many of them daylight incidents – are common causes of death.

Journalist seeking truth about Khmer Rouge 'fears for his life'

Thet Sambath's first documentary about the Khmer Rouge, Enemies of the People, was shortlisted for an Academy Award

Award-winning film-maker Thet Sambath says he has been followed, harassed and chased during his research

Sunday 25 March 2012

Kate Hodal in Phnom Penh

guardian.co.uk

One of Cambodia's leading journalists and foremost researchers on the Khmer Rouge has told the Guardian he fears for his life after a two-year harassment campaign by state security forces he claims are attempting to prevent him from completing his latest film about the Killing Fields.

Award-winning film-maker Thet Sambath – whose 2010 documentary about the Khmer Rouge, Enemies of the People, was shortlisted for an Oscar – claims that uniformed soldiers and plainclothes "spies" working for the Cambodian government have repeatedly followed, harassed and chased him by car and motorbike, with the intention of "making [him] disappear".

"They are concerned I will reveal their true crime [through the new film] and … [that] their reputation will be destroyed," Sambath said. "I know too much about what really happened. They want me dead."

Center Posts Reminder of Slain Journalists on Website

In 2010, Licadho recorded 16 reporters were arrested and charged with crimes after they investigated forest crimes. (Photo: AP)

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 30 December 2010

“If we continue this culture, we cannot build a democratic society.”

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights has posted the names of 10 journalists who were killed over the last 16 years, “to remind the public and ministries concerned not to forget them.”

The inability for police to solve the murders shows “the government has no will or is in capable,” said Ou Virak, head of the center.

The center has posted the names and the circumstances surrounding the murders on its website.

Reporters killed include those who supported the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, as well as royalist Funcinpec and the pro-government newspaper Koh Santepheap, between 1994 and 2008.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said the files were “not closed” on those cases, and he called on help from the public to find the killers.

However, Ham Sunrith, deputy director of the rights group Licadho, said he had not seen any progress on the investigations.

“If we continue this culture, we cannot build a democratic society,” said Yim Sovann, an SRP lawmaker.

The unsolved murders of journalists remains a black spot for the government, which in recent months has tried to show an anti-corruption stance, with the passage of a new law and the recent arrest of a Pursat province court prosecutor.

But critics warn the courts too have been used to intimidate journalists.

Licadho recorded 16 reporters were arrested and charged with crimes in 2010 after they investigated forest crimes.

All of which adds up to less information, Ou Virak said.

“The impunity scares professional reporters, and impact access to information,” he said.

Profile Of Cambodian Journalists Killed Available In sithi.org Now

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

PROFILE OF CAMBODIAN JOURNALISTS KILLED

AVAILABLE IN sithi.org NOW

The Sithi Team is delighted to announce that the Cambodian Human Rights Portal, sithi.org has mapped and made available the profiles of Cambodian journalists killed in Cambodia since 1993. To access this information, Please visit http://www.sithi.org/temp.php?url=journalists.html. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@sithi.org.

Many thanks in advance for your support and assistance.

Best regards,


Sithi Team
Tel: +855 23 72 69 01
Fax: +855 23 72 69 02
Nº798, Street 99, Beoung Trabek,
Khan Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

In the US, a journalist is fired for donating to a political party ... in Cambodia, most journalists must work for the ruling CPP party or else...

Keith Olbermann, host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, has been suspended indefinitely by MSNBC. Photograph: Fred Prouser/Reuters

Friday 5 November 2010
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk

A prominent US television anchorman, Keith Olbermann, was suspended today for making donations to three Democratic candidates in this week's midterm elections, in breach of company rules.

US journalistic ethics are extremely strict, barring media employees from donating to political parties or any other political involvement that might cause a conflict of interest.

Although Rupert Murdoch contributed $2m (£1.23m) to the Republicans and commentators from his Fox News network also made donations, papers such as the New York Times, National Public Radio and television channels such as CNN and MSNBC seek to maintain strict neutrality.

Olbermann, host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, made contributions to two Democrats standing in Arizona and the Democrat Jack Conway, fighting for a place in the US Senate in Kentucky against the Republican Rand Paul, a Tea Party favourite.

Olbermann confirmed in a statement to the Politico website that he had given each of the candidates $2,400, the legal maximum for donations.

The MSNBC president, Phil Griffin, said in a statement: "I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC news policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay." Olbermann has a contract with MSNBC until 2012.

MSNBC has positioned itself in recent years as a liberal counterweight to the rightwing Fox News, with journalists such as Olbermann outspoken in support of Obama and the Democrats. But it still wants to be seen as adhering to journalistic standards of objectivity, and has been criticising Murdoch over his donations.

Olbermann contributed to one of the Arizona candidates, Raúl Grijalva, on the same day that the Democrat appeared on his Countdown show.

In his statement, Olbermann said: "One week ago, on the night of Thursday 28 October 2010, after a discussion with a friend about the state of politics in Arizona, I donated $2,400 each to the re-election campaigns of Democratic representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. I also donated the same amount to the campaign of Democratic senatorial candidate Jack Conway in Kentucky."

He added: "I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns, nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level."

The Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, according to the Salon website, gave $5,000 to a political committee that supported Michele Bachmann, a Republican congresswoman and Tea Party favourite. But Fox, unlike MSNBC, sees no conflict of interest.

In a sign of the strict neutrality the US media normally applies, the former editor of the Washington Post, Len Downie, famously did not even vote. Another, more recent example was a ban by NPR on staff – other than those covering the event – attending Jon Stewart's rally on the Washington Mall last weekend.

Politically motivated intimidation and imprisonment of editors, reporters and human rights defenders continue in Cambodia: SEAPA

SEAPA outlines press freedom battles for 2010

2010-01-28
EM News

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) released a new report covering press freedom vulnerabilities throughout the region. After the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) shifts from Thailand to Vietnam in 2010, its approach to press freedom will have a crucial influence on issues like impunity, election coverage and access to the Internet, says the report.

Struggles faced by journalists and media workers in Southeast Asia in 2009 continue. The massacre of 32 journalists last November in the Philippines was the most vicious example of a culture of impunity that exists throughout the region. Journalists also suffered from physical threats, imprisonment and legal harassment, while national security laws are being used as an excuse to curb free speech and defamation remains a criminal offense.

The report, "Southeast Asia's Press Freedom Challenges for 2010", provides country profiles detailing the free expression battles that lie ahead. Burmese media must be able to provide independent coverage of upcoming elections to educate Burmese citizens and to monitor the integrity of the polls, says the report. In Cambodia politically motivated intimidation and imprisonment of editors, reporters and human rights defenders continue. Religious tensions in Malaysia are being used as an excuse to restrict press freedom and Internet access.

Vietnam's repression of dissent and arrest of journalists and bloggers in 2009 takes on greater significance as it heads up ASEAN this year, says the report. The country gets some credit for discussions with international organisations, including London-based ARTICLE 19, on increasing its citizen's access to information. But the recent harsh prison sentence for human rights defender and lawyer Le Cong Dinh sets a different tone for its approach to free speech. At least 12 Vietnamese bloggers were arrested in 2009. The state has also criminalised peaceful dissent which it sees as anti-governmental activity.

Last year's formation of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) has created a platform for free expression advocates to challenge authorities. However, Vietnam's leadership of AICHR is being questioned by rights activists throughout the region, says the report.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: World Press Freedom Day

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

Press freedom in Cambodia: NOT FREE due to increased violence against journalists

Press freedom declining around the world: study

Friday, May 01, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Press freedom declined around the world last year, deteriorating for the first time in every region, according to a study released by Freedom House.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), meanwhile, unveiled its list of "10 worst countries to be a blogger," naming Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Tunisia, China, Turkmenistan and Egypt to its "dishonor roll."

Out of the 195 countries and territories covered in the Freedom House study, 70, or 36 percent, were rated "free," 61 (31 percent), were rated "partly free" and 64 (33 percent) were rated "not free."

Freedom House, which is funded by the US government and private groups and has been conducting an annual study of press freedom since 1980, said that 72 countries were rated free the previous year.

It said that while press freedom had declined in 2008 for the seventh year in a row, last year marked the first time it had deteriorated in every region.

"The journalism profession today is up against the ropes and fighting to stay alive, as pressures from governments, other powerful actors and the global economic crisis take an enormous toll," executive director Jennifer Windsor said.

Freedom House said gains in South Asia and Africa were "overshadowed by a campaign of intimidation targeting independent media, particularly in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East and North Africa."

It said Israel, Italy and Hong Kong slipped from free to partly free status in 2008.

Among the worst-rated states were Belarus, China, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Laos, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea, the Palestinian territories, Rwanda and Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe.

In Asia, Cambodia fell to not free status because of increased violence against journalists, while Hong Kong slipped to partly free as Beijing exerted growing influence over the media.

China's media environment remained "bleak" while media in Taiwan faced assault and growing government pressure.

"China should have had a better record in 2008 and upheld its promise to ensure press freedom during the Olympics, but instead it chose to remain the world's largest repressor of media freedom," said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, managing editor of the study.

South Asia saw improvement in Bangladesh, the Maldives and Pakistan while Sri Lanka and Afghanistan suffered setbacks.

Myanmar also got poor marks from the CPJ.

"With a military government that severely restricts Internet access and imprisons people for years for posting critical material, Burma is the worst place in the world to be a blogger," it said.

Freedom House said the biggest drop in press freedom occurred in Central and Eastern Europe with journalists murdered in Bulgaria and Croatia, assaulted in Bosnia and denied judicial protection in Russia.

The Middle East and North Africa continued to have the lowest level of press freedom.

Restrictions on journalists and official attempts to influence coverage during the Gaza conflict led to Israel's downgrading to partly free status.

Freedom House said press freedom fell in Senegal, Madagascar, Chad, South Africa, Tanzania and others in sub-Saharan Africa while Comoros, Sierra Leone, Angola and Liberia showed improvement.

It said Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Nicaragua registered major declines while Guyana regained its free rating and Haiti and Uruguay saw significant improvement. Mexico?s score dropped because of increased violence.

Western Europe boasted the highest level of press freedom although Italy slipped into the partly free category with free speech limited by courts and libel laws and concerns over the concentration of media ownership.

The reports from Freedom House, which was created in 1941 by Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of then US president Franklin Roosevelt, among others, and CPJ were released to coincide with World Press Freedom Day on Sunday.

22 unacceptable attacks against journalists in Cambodia

22 attacks conducted against journalists in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-two cases of violence against journalists were recorded in the second half of 2008 and the first two months of 2009 in Cambodia, said English-language daily newspaper the Phnom Penh Post on Monday.

These included cases in which journalists were detained and cases in which threats or accusations were made against them "by individuals, groups, authorities and court institutions," the paper quoted a press release from the Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ) as saying.

Meanwhile, the CCJ decried unprofessional behavior on the part of some journalists, who accepted bribes or used unethical means to advance the aims of the groups that they supported.

The press release also urged the Ministry of Information to use more discretion in issuing press cards.

"Some media pass holders are not journalists," said CCJ secretary general Prach Sim.

Over 300 newspapers are registered with the ministry, but only 10 are publishing daily and 30 can get printed on regular basis.