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&AM%O'-A For years Aun Pheap reported on cor ruption, human rights abuses, elections and political scan dals for every major news paper in &ambodia, a job he felt he was born to do. Now, like so many journalists who worked in &ambodia’s once free press, he is in e[ile, branded an enemy of the state. For Pheap, formerly a re porter at the Cambodia Daily, which shut down last year, ³this is the worst situation for the press and for journalists , have seen in my whole year career”. And it has wor sened further this week, with the sale of the Phnom Penh Post, seen as the last bastion of the free press in &ambodia, to the owner of a Malaysian PR company who has links to the regime of the &ambodian prime minister, +un Sen. The development was described by Phil Robertson, the dep uty Asia director of +uman Rights Watch, as ³a stagger ing blow to press freedom in &ambodia”. The day follow ing the takeover, the Post’s editor and several reporters were fired by the new owner, while the managing editor and others resigned in protest. ,n less than a year, &ambodia has gone from having the fre est press in the region to be ing one of the most repressive and dangerous places to be a journalist. ,n the 2 1 Re porters Without %orders press freedom inde[ published last month, &ambodia dropped 1 places from 1 2 to 1 2, and the country’s independent press was described as being ³in ruins”. This was echoed by the &ambodian &entre for ,ndependent Media, which recently concluded that the ³facade” of free press in &am bodia had collapsed entirely, with almost half of journal ists reporting intimidation. +un Sen’s all out war on the independent media began in early 2 1 , as journalists found themselves followed and harassed by secret police and controversial commenta tors were arrested. Then, in September, the Cambodia Daily which had been accused of a pro opposition stance was forced to close over a dis puted . m ta[ bill. This was swiftly followed by the shut ting down of the Phnom Penh office of Radio Free Asia RFA , which produced some of the most popularly con sumed reporting on human rights violations and illegal government activity. Over all, 2 radio station across 2 provinces that broadcast reports critical of the govern ment were forced to close last year.
(The Guardian)