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Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has shut down one of many nation’s few remaining unbiased media shops, with human rights organisations condemning the choice as a politically-motivated assault on the free press.
Following orders from Hun Sen, the federal government revoked the licence for Voice of Democracy (VOD) on Monday with entry to VOD’s Khmer and English language web sites blocked by some web service suppliers inside the nation.
The lack of VOD “will go away a gaping gap in Cambodia’s media panorama”, Naly Pilorge, government director of Cambodian human rights group Licadho, instructed Al Jazeera.
The outlet’s sudden closure adopted an order from Hun Sen over the weekend for VOD to apologise for and retract a February 9 Khmer language report that his son, Lieutenant Basic Hun Manet, had authorised $100,000 help to Turkey rather than his father.
Hun Manet is about to take over the management of the ruling Cambodian Individuals’s Occasion (CPP) as soon as Hun Sen, who has been in energy for almost 40 years, steps down. However Hun Sen stays the CPP’s candidate for prime minister in elections which can be scheduled to happen in July.
The VOD article was based mostly on a quote from authorities spokesperson Phay Siphan, who instructed the outlet that “it isn’t fallacious for Hun Manet to play his father’s function in offering help to Turkey”.
In a social media put up afterwards, Hun Manet denied he had authorised the help, which VOD Khmer famous in a follow-up report.
Licadho famous in an announcement that whereas Cambodia’s press legislation gives public figures with a authorized avenue to hunt retraction, the prime minister had given VOD solely 72 hours to concern an apology earlier than all of the sudden shortening the deadline to Monday morning.
The Cambodian Middle for Unbiased Media (CCIM) — which runs VOD — despatched Hun Sen a letter on Sunday expressing “remorse” for any confusion brought on by the article and asking for “forgiveness” for any perceived wrongdoing. However Hun Sen rejected it.
“Is it acceptable to make use of the phrases of remorse and forgiveness as a substitute of the phrase ‘apologise’?” the prime minister mentioned in a Fb put up on Sunday night. “For me, I can not settle for it.”
Even after CCIM issued a second apology within the early hours of Monday, the Cambodian chief chided the organisation on Fb and mentioned he had already made up his thoughts.
‘A lesson’
Minister of Data Kanharith Khieu known as the choice to revoke VOD’s licence “a lesson for different media shops” in a Fb put up.
“Establishments that don’t appropriate their feedback might face the identical licence revocation!” he mentioned on Sunday night.
CCIM’s media director Ith Sothoeuth mentioned he nonetheless believed there was a risk to resolve the state of affairs and that he had been in talks with the federal government.
“We hope this isn’t the top of the whole lot but, we’ll strive our greatest to work with all related stakeholders, hopefully, the answer could be realised quickly,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director Phil Robertson mentioned Hun Sen’s choice to shut down VOD was based mostly on the “silliest of rationales”. He believed the choice was immediately related to the outlet’s investigative reporting into human trafficking and cybercrime syndicates which have plagued Cambodia lately.
“The true losers in all of this are the folks of Cambodia, who’ve now misplaced one of many final remaining unbiased, muckraking, anti-corruption media shops that stood up for the pursuits of individuals and communities shedding land, livelihoods, and rights to the pernicious corruption that underpins nearly the whole lot Hun Sen’s authorities does,” Robertson instructed Al Jazeera.
CCIM, which receives funding from the United Nations and the European Union, based VOD in 2003 as a radio service and launched VOD Khmer, a Khmer language information web site, in 2011. Whereas the federal government ordered VOD to cease broadcasting on airwaves in 2017, the organisation continued to place out audio programmes on-line.
Journalist Alex Willemyns says he co-founded VOD English in 2019 “to fill the vacuum” of unbiased English language media following the compelled closure of The Cambodia Every day in 2017 and the sale of The Phnom Penh Publish to a Malaysian proprietor with alleged hyperlinks to Hun Sen the 12 months after.
“Moreover the plain lack of its unbiased perspective on the massive information of the day, there can be nobody else left to constantly cowl the small tales it covers every day that collectively develop into the kindling of the larger tales,” Willemyns, who left Cambodia in 2020, instructed Al Jazeera. “VOD had develop into Cambodia’s information service of file.”
Willemyns says VOD’s closure despatched a transparent message to journalists to keep away from any vital protection of Hun Manet’s pending transition to energy.
In a number of Fb posts, Hun Sen appeared to revel within the demise of VOD, telling its employees: “Discover a new job.”
Among the many journalists now going through unemployment is Nhim Sokhorn who began off as a VOD safety guard in 2007 earlier than turning into a employees reporter three years later. The 57-year-old says he has devoted greater than a decade of his life to being a voice for the unvoiced and holding authorities accountable throughout Cambodia.
“As we see, there are a whole lot of media shops in our nation, however what number of media shops dare to report the true points within the nation?” he instructed Al Jazeera. “Those that suffered injustice, the abuse of rights, the abuse of land.
“I feel VOD will attempt to discover a option to proceed our mission regardless of the rain and the storm.”
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