Bangkok, January 24, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that Cambodian officials deleted digital recordings and confiscated recording equipment from a number of journalists who covered a January 21 government press conference in Phnom Penh.
Om Yentieng, head of the government's anti-corruption unit and Human Rights Committee, ordered an aide to confiscate the property after a reporter asked a question about an unsolved grenade attack that targeted an opposition rally in 1997, according to a statement released by the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia. Sixteen activists were killed in the attack.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan later told news media that the government was within its rights to confiscate reporters' recordings and equipment to protect the "privacy rights" and "dignity" of officials. The Press Club noted in response that the confiscation of tapes and recorders constitutes censorship in violation of Article 3 of the 1995 Press Law, which broadly guarantees press freedoms.
The censorship generated some coverage in the Cambodian press. The independent English-language daily, The Phnom Penh Post, reported the question and Om Yentieng's reponse. The official called the question a "trap," labeled the reporter a "Khmer child," and asserted that recordings required permission, the Post reported.
Om Yentieng, head of the government's anti-corruption unit and Human Rights Committee, ordered an aide to confiscate the property after a reporter asked a question about an unsolved grenade attack that targeted an opposition rally in 1997, according to a statement released by the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia. Sixteen activists were killed in the attack.
Government spokesman Phay Siphan later told news media that the government was within its rights to confiscate reporters' recordings and equipment to protect the "privacy rights" and "dignity" of officials. The Press Club noted in response that the confiscation of tapes and recorders constitutes censorship in violation of Article 3 of the 1995 Press Law, which broadly guarantees press freedoms.
The censorship generated some coverage in the Cambodian press. The independent English-language daily, The Phnom Penh Post, reported the question and Om Yentieng's reponse. The official called the question a "trap," labeled the reporter a "Khmer child," and asserted that recordings required permission, the Post reported.
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