LIBRARY

19 February 2021

We, the undersigned civil society groups, are seriously concerned about the sub-decree on the establishment of the national internet gateway (NIG) issued on Monday, 16 February, and call on the government to immediately repeal this sub-decree.

18 May 2020

We, the undersigned civil society groups, urgently call on the government to drop all charges against imprisoned journalists Sok Oudom and Sovann Rithy and to halt all harassment of other journalists in Cambodia facing prosecution for their critical reporting. We also urge the government to immediately restore the broadcasting licenses of all media outlets revoked before and during this latest assault on press freedom.

Police arrested local radio station owner Sok Oudom in Kampong Chhnang province on Wednesday on charges of “incitement to commit a felony”. Oudom regularly reported on longstanding land disputes between local farming communities and powerful district officials. The day before Oudom’s arrest, the Ministry of Information revoked the media license of his Rithysen Radio Station and its website, despite the fact that Oudom had yet to be charged with any crime. He remains in pre-trial detention.

9 May 2018

We, the undersigned civil society groups, condemn the latest blow to press freedom in Cambodia, with the opaque sale of The Phnom Penh Post, and the new owner’s immediate interference in the paper’s editorial independence, which compelled 13 senior staff and reporters to resign and led to the sacking of the paper’s Editor-in-Chief.

This is just the latest in a series of attacks which have devastated Cambodia’s media landscape since mid-2017. The Phnom Penh Post was Cambodia’s last remaining independent English-Khmer language daily, and its change of ownership raises serious questions about the paper’s continued independence.

22 March 2018

Kampong Speu Provincial Court confirmed the conviction today of Sam Sokha on charges of “insult” and “incitement to discriminate” for posting a video to Facebook in which she throws a sandal at a Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) billboard.

Sokha was convicted in absentia and then deported from Thailand last month despite having registered there with the United Nations refugee agency. Her case was retried on 15 March 2018.

The video clip, posted in April 2017 – just two months before local elections – includes colourful language and criticism of Prime Minister Hun Sen. In the video she is seen throwing a sandal at photos of the prime minister and of Heng Samrin, Honorary President of the CPP and President of the National Assembly.

31 March 2016

Behind a façade of “technical” intent, the new Law on Telecommunications (Telecoms Law) poses a severe threat to freedom of expression in Cambodia, targeting not only online public expression but also any private communications made using telecommunications devices.

In a briefing paper released today, LICADHO analyses the law’s most egregious provisions – which, among others, allow the government to secretly intrude into the private lives of individuals, destroy evidence before criminal trials, and seize control of the entire telecoms industry if arbitrarily deemed warranted. Its excessive measures, particularly those creating new criminal offenses, reveal the true intent of the law: to intimidate individuals, punish the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms and quash individual and group dissent.

15 March 2016

This afternoon, Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced university student Kong Raya, 25, to 18 months’ imprisonment for calling for a “colour revolution” on his Facebook page. His conviction represents the latest development in a growing trend for authorities to take action against online expression.

Kong Raya, the president of Cambodia Student Network, was arrested for his Facebook comments on August 20 – less than a month after Prime Minister Hun Sen called on police and armed forces to take action over any group or individual attempting a “colour revolution”. He was charged with criminal incitement under Articles 494 and 495 of Cambodia’s criminal code and sent to CC1 prison. With today’s sentence he is set to remain incarcerated for almost another year.

11 June 2015

This audio book titled “Going Offline? The Threat to Cambodia’s Newfound Internet Freedoms” describes the vital importance of the Internet for freedom of expression in Cambodia and the imminent threat that this last bastion for independent voices now faces.

17 May 2015

On World Information Society Day, LICADHO releases its report “Going Offline? The Threat to Cambodia’s Newfound Internet Freedoms,” describing the vital importance of the Internet for freedom of expression in Cambodia and the imminent threat that this last bastion for independent voices now faces.

7 August 2013

We, the undersigned civil society groups, urge Metfone, an Internet service provider (ISP) registered and operating in Cambodia, to issue a full explanation of today’s temporary blocking of Facebook, as well as the ongoing unavailability of the Ki-Media website.

Earlier this morning, at about 9 AM, Metfone users began to report that they were denied access to Facebook. The outage lasted for more than three hours.

1 July 2013

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, welcome the government’s decision to rescind shocking measures issued last week to censor Cambodia’s local news media in the final weeks before the July 28 National Assembly elections, and condemn the decision ever to implement such measures. We remain deeply concerned about an order to ban foreign news reporting of election polling which will come into force five days before the vote.

We condemn this ban in the strongest possible terms and urge the government to remove all restrictions on the news media during this critical pre-election period. We also call for the government to guarantee that it will not repeat its attempts to censor the airwaves or any other media, including social media on the internet.

13 December 2012

The government has issued a new circular ordering the closure of all Internet cafes within a 500 meter radius of schools and educational institutions – an order that, if implemented, would amount to a near-complete ban on such businesses in central Phnom Penh.

The circular, issued by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on November 12, 2012, also provides for further restrictions not limited by this school buffer zone. All Internet cafes are also required to forbid playing “all kinds of games,” essentially equating such activity with viewing pornography or committing crimes

16 February 2011

The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) condemns the ongoing censorship of the Internet in Cambodia, which has targeted news and opinion sites critical of the government.

"Until now, Cambodia's Internet environment had been noticeably freer than in neighboring countries," said LICADHO President Pung Chhiv Kek. "More importantly, the Internet was the only audio or visual media not fully controlled by the government. The censoring of controversial Web sites marks a significant milestone in the march toward a more oppressive media environment."

The ongoing disruption of certain Web sites began for some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on January 19, 2011, with the blockage of the controversial Web site KI-Media (and initiall all blogs hosted by the domain Blogspot). The problem affected ISPs Ezecom, Metfone, WiCAM and possibly others.