"Ministry of Information empowers local authorities to take legal action against journalists", 6 July 2021

The Ministry of Information has given local authorities the green light to take legal action against journalists that they deem are unprofessional or spreading false information that obstructs law enforcement.

The ministry made its decision after Kandal provincial authorities wrote to the ministry … asking it to take legal action against a number of journalists who livestreamed a protest against a new airport development in Kandal Stung district. In its response, the ministry gave the provincial administration permission to pursue legal action independently without first going through the ministry…

Luos Seng, the owner of online news station LSN News TV and one of the journalists targeted by provincial authorities, said that they had been under warning since he livestreamed the confrontation over Facebook.

“Authorities did not prevent journalists from entering the location where people were gathering,” he said. “But they complained about me to the minister of information for incitement, and the minister referred the case to court.”

… More than 300 families living on 400 hectares of land spread between three communes in Kandal Stung district and one in Takeo province’s Bati district have been locked in a dispute for three years since the start of the $1.5 billion airport project, which is being developed by the conglomerate Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC) along with the governmental State Secretariat of Civil Aviation…

… Nop Vy, executive director of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association, said that journalists who commit an offense in their reporting should be penalised under the press law, not the penal code…