Cambodian journalist network and outlet CamboJA has been shortlisted for an RSF Press Freedom Award. Could the organisation represent a genuine source of hope for independent media in Cambodia’s increasingly hostile journalism environment?
Descent Into Outright Dictatorship’ read the front page headline of the final issue of the Cambodia Daily on September 4, 2017, as the newspaper succumbed to the pressure of a government harassment campaign.
When a second high-profile newspaper, the Phnom Penh Post, was sold to a Malaysian PR firm with links to Hun Sen’s government just eight months later, it seemed scrutinising media voices in Cambodia were successfully muzzled.
Even those who do manage to access it are simply met with curated articles from other outlets – a far cry from the newspaper’s hard-hitting heyday.
«For me, the Daily ceased in September 2017,» Kevin Doyle, the paper’s editor-in-chief from 2004 to 2014, told the Globe. In terms of local outlets, CamboJA sits among a select few – VOD and Thmey Thmey among them – struggling to maintain some notion of editorial independence. But even then, caution and self-censorship remain the name of the game as editors are all too conscious of invisible, unstated lines that must not be crossed.
The Khmer Times and the Phnom Penh Post fulfil a role of appearing to produce professional journalism in Cambodia’s much-changed news media environment
This article was written by ALEXI DEMETRIADI
To read the full article, please click on the following link: https://southeastasiaglobe.com/camboja-nominated-for-press-freedom-award/
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