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Hang Chakra (Photo: Sok Serey, RFA)ABC Radio Australia
Cambodia's free press was dealt another blow this week, with the Phnom Penh Appeal Court upholding a criminal conviction of a newspaper editor who ran stories on corruption at high levels of government. Hang Chakra looks set to spend a year in jail on charges of disinformation after publishing articles earlier this year which alleged widespread corruption by officials working for Cambodia's deputy Prime Minister, Sok An.
Human Rights Watch and local NGOs say the verdict is the latest in a series of legal attacks against critics of the government, and will increase the control of the ruling Cambodian People's Party's over the media.
Presenter: Liam Cochrane
Speaker: Kathleen O'Keefe, co-founder of the Phnom Penh Post; Moeun Chhean Nariddh, the director of the Cambodian Institute for Media Studies
Listen: Windows Media
NARIDDH: Chakra is the editor-in-chief of Khmer Machas Srok newspaper which is one of the opposition party aligned newspapers. He was in charged with damaging the national interest as well as affirming the Minister for the Council of Ministers.
COCHRANE: And Kathleen, if I can cross to you, Hang Chakra worked for the newspaper, Khmer Machas Srok which is considered to be loyal to the opposition Sam Rainsy Party. How important do you think politics were in this case?
O'KEEFE: It's very difficult to say exactly what all the motivating factors were. What we are seeing is that the judiciary is increasingly being used to attack anybody who expresses dissenting opinion. It's really part of a larger attack or larger crackdown on free expression, which has been intensifying since 2005.
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