Cambodian court convicts 2 journalists, including Irish national, of defaming army officers

In this picture taken on Sept. 9, 2009, Irish journalist Kevin Doyle, 41, the editor-in-chief of the well-known local English newspaper Cambodian Daily, enters the Phnom Penh Municipality Court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. On Tuesday, Sept. 22, the court found two journalists, including Doyle, guilty of defamation for publishing an article in which an opposition leader criticized dozens of high-ranking military officers. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
By Sopheng Cheang
The Canadian Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A Cambodian court found two journalists, including an Irish national, guilty of defamation Tuesday for publishing an article in which an opposition leader allegedly criticized dozens of high-ranking military officers.

The ruling was the latest in a series of legal judgments this year that human rights groups charge are part of a campaign of intimidation against critics of the government.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Sin Visal ordered Cambodian Daily Editor-in-Chief Kevin Doyle and Neou Vannarin, a Cambodian reporter at the same newspaper, to pay a total of 8 million riel ($1,927) in compensation to a group of senior military officers about whom the paper reported.

"The article published in their paper caused confusion among the Cambodian people and damaged the dignity of the military officers," Sin Visal told the court.

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