Watchdog Group Urges Cambodia To Free Jailed Broadcaster

November 11, 2005

Beehive Radio director Mam Sonando moments before Phnom Penh police detained him. Photo: RFA

PHNOM PENH—A leading media watchdog group called Friday on Cambodia to release an independent broadcaster charged with defaming the government in an interview on Cambodian-Vietnamese border issues.

“Prime Minister Hun Sen has no right to invoke national security in order to imprison journalists and NGO activists, and it is increasingly clear that the authorities are ready to sacrifice press freedom in order to hold on to power and avoid all criticism,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement. “By arresting Mam Sonando, the Cambodian government is trying to discourage journalists from covering the sensitive issue of territorial concessions to Vietnam.”

Mam Sonando, owner of Sombok Khmum (Beehive FM 105), was arrested Oct. 11 after the station aired an interview that touched on the sensitive question of whether Cambodia has given up land to traditional rival Vietnam. The interview was with Sean Peng Se, chairman of the France-based Cambodian committee on border treaties with Vietnam.

Hun Sen told legislators Friday that Mam Sonando was charged because he had editorialized against the government during the interview. The charges come amid a broad crackdown on people Hun Sen says have accused him of giving up Cambodian land or selling it to foreigners.

Mam Sonando remains in custody held in Prey Sar prison, near Phnom Penh. A court has refused to free him on bail and the government is about to bring an additional charge against him of broadcasting false information.

“Reporters Without Borders has analyzed the 39-minute program on the border issue which Mam Sonando broadcast on 20 September and it is very clear that he was just doing his job as a journalist when he interviewed Sean Pengse, the head of the Paris-based Cambodia Borders Committee, which opposes ceding the islands of Phu Quoc and Krachakses to Vietnam,” the group said.

“In the interview, Mam Sonando asked Sean Peng Se to explain the border treaties between Cambodia and Vietnam. He did at one point say he agreed with his interviewee, but that was in reference to international indifference on the issue. At no point did Mam Sonando directly attack Prime Minister Hun Sen. On the contrary, he defended him twice. He said for example: ‘I think you are putting all the responsibility for the problem on Hun Sen. But he is in the executive and the national assembly comes first.’”