CAMBODIA SHUTS RADIO STATIONS

>> PHNOM PENH: The Cambodian government has revoked the licences of 17 radio stations in recent weeks, an official confirmed on Friday, amid growing concerns over media freedom ahead of next year’s general election.

Phos Sovann, director general for information and broadcasting at the Information Ministry, said that the media outlets violated the terms of their licences, such as by leasing programme time to US-funded broadcasters Radio Free Asia and Voice of America without requesting the ministry’s authorisation.

Officials have also faulted the radio stations and their provincial affiliates for being too critical of the government and for being biased toward the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) earlier this week condemned the “escalation in media freedom violations” in Cambodia, which is ranked 132nd out of 180 countries in the media watchdog’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index.

The RSF cited the government’s moves last month against independent radio stations like Women’s Media Centre of Cambodia and Mohanokor, as well as the forced closure of The Cambodia Daily, an independent newspaper known for covering stories embarrassing for the government.

The English-language daily, which had operated for 24 years, shut down after the government suddenly demanded quick payment of US$6.3 million in allegedly due back taxes without first conducting an audit, which RSF said constitutes “an indirect form of censorship.”

It said that move and last week’s arrest of CNRP leader Kem Sokha on treason charges “confirm that the government is bent on gagging all criticism in the run-up to next year’s elections,” in which Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party is expected to face a strong challenge from the CNRP.

The government also recently ordered the closure of the National Democratic Institute, a pro-democracy, non-profit organisation that is tied to the Democratic Party of the United States.