A Change of Guard

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Monday 2 November 2009

Sereipheap Thmey newspaper suspended publications after criticising PM Hun Sen

By Khmerization

The opposition Sereipheap Thmey (New Liberty) newspaper has suspended its publications for the last few days after the Ministry of Information strongly reacted to its editorial critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen, reports Khmer Sthapana.

In its editorial published on 19th October titled "Hun Sen and his continued rule by a coup d'etat", Sereipheap Thmey editorialised by using the defenition of Samdech Chuon Nath's dictionary to define a coup d'etat as "the arrests and the toppling of rulers whom they (coup leaders) don't like in order to take powers." The newspaper asked on what grounds Mr. Hun Sen staged a coup d'etat for, by referring to Mr. Hun Sen's coup d'etat that toppled Prince Ranariddh in 1997 as in contravention of the constitution which involved the use of illegal forces to toppled an elected leader.

The Ministry of Information strongly reacted by accusing Sereipheap Thmey of defaming and insulting Prime Minister Hun Sen. It also accused Seriepheap Thmey of violating Article 5 of the Press Laws which prohibited the publications of any articles which can "endanger the officials who are enforcing the laws or are in the process of carrying out their missions."

The Ministry of Information also accused Sereipheap Thmey of violating Article 7, Provision 11 of the Press Laws which must avoid "creating misunderstanding and innuendoes that can creates false and unfair impression of a certain individual or group."

After strong reactions from the Ministry of Information, Sereipheap Thmey took a voluntary step to suspend its publications.

On 9th July 2009, the Moneaksekar Khmer Daily had agreed to cease publications in exchange for the government to drop all charges against the editor Mr. Dam Sith after his paper ran a series of articles critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

They government will use this tactics to shut down all opposition newspapers. If they criticize the government, the will sue them then drop the suit if the editors agreed to close the newspapers. If they refused to close down their papers, they will go to jail like Hang Chakra. This is tactics employed by the current Cambodian government today.