Excerpt from "Looking back, looking ahead: Press Freedom in Southeast Asia"
Source: SEAPA, Southeast Asian Press Alliance
The media situation in Cambodia palpably deteriorated in the runup to the July 27, 2008 elections, with the overall atmosphere marked by violence, and highlighting continuing questions about the environment for press freedom beyond the political season.
Journalist Khim Sambo of “Moneakseka Khmer” newspaper was shot dead on July 12 by still-unknown gunmen. Sambo’s son, Khat Sarin Pheata, was also killed. The Cambodian media saw the murders as a warning to their sector. Earlier, Sambo’s superior, Dam Sith, was jailed for a week for allegedly defaming Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong.
Also, in the early part of the year, a local journalist, Khuon Phlaivy, survived a slay attempt. He had received death threats earlier.
Too powerful
For all the violence, however, it was still the elections that served as a portent of the larger issues that confronted the media in 2008, and that will continue to hang over the heads of the country’s journalists.
Prime Minister Hun Sen and his party, the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), handily won the elections. They managed to secure more than two-thirds of the National Assembly seats.
The opposition Sam Rainsy Party has been trying to bargain for a power-sharing scheme, but with the CPP holding 90 of 123 seats, there is little leverage in the National Assembly to ensure that a system of checks and balances is in place.
This has gotten the media and human rights groups on edge. The main challenge confronting Cambodian media is a pending bill in parliament with provisions aimed at curbing the activities of local and international non-government organizations operating in Cambodia. Saying terrorists might use NGOs as fronts to penetrate Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen has thrown his full support behind the bill, and backed by a super majority, he is poised to pass legislation that could further dampen the press freedom situation in the country.
Dubious laws, weak courts
Cambodia currently has two Press Laws, the first being the one adopted in 1993 under the UNTAC and the second in 1994 adopted by the National Assembly. Both laws have provisions aimed at curtailing press freedom and hindering the work of journalists. These provisions include Articles 12 and 20 of the Press Law that vaguely define offenses deemed harmful to national security. This ambiguity enables judges and authorities to prosecute members of the media unjustly. The UNTAC law’s Article 62 also has vague provisions against “disinformation”, another matter that can too easily render journalists and their sources vulnerable to unjust prosecution.
Beyond weaknesses and traps in the law, the judiciary itself cannot be expected to remedy such dangers. The judicial branch of government is seen as politicized and inclined towards the whims of the executive branch. Corruption is also widespread, and there are inconsistencies in the way judgments are passed, particularly on matters of political sensitivity, including issues of rights and liberties.
The Internet
New media offers some crucial room for public discussions. Though the Internet penetration rate is only 0.5% of the population, or 40,000 out of the seven million adult population, Cambodia is noted for a burgeoning community of bloggers. Here though, there are also new dangers. The government is now considering how to extend rules governing traditional media, so as to make them apply to online media and platforms as well.
The Ministry of Information is drafting legislation that allows existing print regulations to govern other media, including the Internet, but vows not to curtail press freedom.
The Ministry of Information wants to extend existing libel, defamation and ethics rules applying to print and broadcasting media to web-based platforms.
Officials insist that such proposals are not intended to impact on freedom of the press. Still, control of the Internet recently became an issue when several government officials suggested shutting down a website by Cambodian-American artist Reahu, whose depictions of semi-nude Apsaras were claimed to degrade Cambodian culture.
The Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists (CAPJ), a SEAPA partner, says it is troubled by the Cambodian government's plan to regulate the Internet through the enactment of a law by late 2009. CAPJ appealed to the government to put the plan on hold. The group stressed that “since the Internet became available in 1997, it has been serving the public well despite the absence of laws governing it. Furthermore, no major incidents involving the Internet which caused negative consequences to Cambodian society has taken place.”
With the prospect of the new regulation, CAPJ President Um Sarin said: "It seems the government is applying autocratic rules to control everything about communication. We worry that this law would be used as a tool to control and clamp down on bloggers who harshly criticize the government and we appeal for the government to reconsider its current plan."
