Gov’t monitoring NGOs
on their Facebook pages. You see what they publish. Neutral or not, we can see. This is a warning,” Sopheak said.
He also singled out the “Situation Room”, an election monitoring station set up by a coalition of human rights groups and election monitors, as worthy of surveillance.
The warning comes just two days ahead of Cambodia’s commune elections, which are widely regarded as a litmus test for the upcoming 2018 national election.
Observers have noted increased intimidation of rights groups leading up to the tight poll, including the ongoing detention of four Adhoc human rights defenders and a National Election Committee official, who have now been imprisoned for more than a year.
Naly Pilorge, Licadho’s deputy director of advocacy, denied the organisation had violated its neutrality and said she was unaware of any investigation into the NGO.
“As a human rights NGO, pre- and post-election work has been and still is a normal part of our work,” she said.
“No one from MoI has contacted any staff or come to any of our 14 offices.”
Koul Panha, director of Comfrel, denied colluding with the opposition and stressed his organisation was nonpartisan. “We are election observers accredited by the NEC,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chak Sopheap, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, spoke out against the controversial laws being invoked by the Ministry.
“Both the Law on Commune Council Elections and the heavily criticised Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations contain broad, vaguely drafted requirements of ‘neutrality’ for NGOs that are ripe for abuse and threaten to severely re- strict their freedom of expression,” she said via email.
“The essential role of civil society in guaranteeing an environment where free and fair elections can take place – including legitimate monitoring activities and comment[ary] on the activities of political parties, candidates and the conduct of the polls – should be celebrated, not punished or deterred.”