Early this year, Cambodia has a piece of good news to impress the world. Reporters Without Borders released a new press freedom index ranking Cambodia at 85 among 169 countries in the world.
Though this figure seemed low regarding the respect for press freedom in a democracy, Cambodia’s ranking far surpassed that of senior democracies in the region such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines- let alone authoritarian Burma, Lao and Vietnam.
Both the Cambodian government and journalists have proudly boasted that Cambodia’s press was “the freest” among all Asean member countries. With this letter level of freedom, we greatly sympathized with media colleagues in neighboring countries such as Burma, where many journalists were killed or thrown into jail.
We would like the government and journalists in these countries to learn from Cambodia about how to build a democracy and free press.
With the letter ranking of Cambodia’s press freedom and a relatively safe atmosphere, Cambodian journalists have pushed the limit of self-censorship and written high-ranking stories on issues such as corruption, injustice, illegal logging and land grabbing committed by powerful officials and rich businessmen.
Unfortunately, their freedom didn’t live long. Cambodia’s pride in its press freedom appeared to come to an end after a local journalist and his innocent son were brutally gunned down in the street not long after the arrest of the slain reporter’s editor.
Now, Cambodian journalists feel that they are not safe, and Cambodia has nothing left to be proud of regarding its press freedom. Nor have Cambodian journalists anything to teach others.
Instead, they may want to learn from their colleagues in Burma and other countries about how to do their jobs in an insecure environment.
It’s sad that Cambodia has lost its hard-earned pride over its press freedom. Cambodia may be unable to restore this good reputation unless the perpetrators of the recent murder of the Khmer reporter and his son and other past killers of journalists are brought to justice.
(Article written by Moeun Chhean Nariddh, was released on The Cambodia Daily)
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This blog reminds me of the “I demand Freedom of press in Cambodia” banner posted on many Khmer sites and homepages on the net. It is unfortunate that even the simplest form of freedom is being strifled in Cambodia by government censorship. The repercussions for being critical also breeds fear in the lives of these journalists who seek to speak the truth. I am glad some strides are being made but more can be done. There is still plenty of progress that needs to be made and justice for those who die in the name of freedom of speech. Like the father and son team…unfortunate.
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