ថ្ងៃអង្គារ ១២រោច ខែផល្គុន ឆ្នាំឆ្លូវ ត្រីស័ក ព.ស.២៥៦៥ ត្រូវនឹងថ្ងៃទី២៩ ខែមីនា គ.ស.២០២២
Tuesday the 12th Waning Moon of Phagguṇa B.E.2565 equivalent to March 29, A.D.2022 Year of the Cow
RSF
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on Cambodia’s information ministry to immediately restore the licences it withdrew from three online media outlets for alleged ethical violations after they covered corruption cases. The ministry failed to follow procedure when it revoked the licences and its accusations are spurious, RSF says.
With no prior warning and no possibility of appeal, the three news outlets – Bayong Times, Khmer Cover TV (KCTV) and Cambodia Today – learned that their licences had been rescinded in a letter issued by the information ministry on 15 March accusing them of violating journalistic ethics and their contracts with the ministry.
By way of ethical violations, what the three news sites have in common is having recently published investigative stories about the rampant corruption within Cambodia’s political and economic elites.
Cambodia Today editor Touch Yuthea told RSF he suspected that the withdrawal of his licence was a “personal decision by senior ministry officials in charge of licences” in response to a story about a corrupt contract bidding process at the labour ministry.