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Cambodian Reporters' Legal Limbo Traumatizes Their Families

Khan Sokummono

   PHNOM PENH - Surrounded by a scrum of journalists bristling with
   equipment and shouting questions, 8-year-old Yeang Socheata has the
   been-here-done-that air of a person twice her height.

   Her hand firmly intertwined with her father's, she ignores uniformed
   security guards trying to keep the crowd contained.

   Her father, Yeang Sothearin, 36, and his colleague, Uon Chhin, 50, are
   the two former Radio Free Asia (RFA) reporters arrested in Cambodia in
   November 2017. They denied charges of espionage and producing
   pornography. Their lawyer said they had only been doing their jobs as
   journalists.

   Their arrests came as Prime Minister Hun Sen's government was
   [1]cracking down on the press ahead of the July 2018 national election.
   Radio stations were shuttered and the English-language newspaper The
   Cambodia Daily was forced to close after receiving a tax bill of more
   than $6 million.

   In an annual ranking of press freedom compiled by Reporters Without
   Borders (RSF) and released earlier this year, Cambodia ranked among the
   world's worst, falling from 142 to 143 out of 180 countries. In 2018,
   Cambodia fell by 10 slots.

References

   1. https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/lasting-damage-after-cambodias-wave-press-oppression

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