Two Cambodian journalists who had worked for US-funded Radio Free Asia and are charged with espionage were on Tuesday released on bail, a day after a pardon freed four land rights activists from prison.
Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, who is better known by his professional name, Yeang Socheameta, were arrested in November last year and charged with undermining national security by supplying information to a foreign state.
The two journalists were also later charged with producing pornography after police said they found pornographic images on their computers.
Photo: Reuters
They face possible prison terms of up to 15 years.
The pair were greeted by friends and family when they walked out of Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh on Tuesday evening.
“Frankly speaking, we are not fully receiving our freedom, because we must still present ourselves upon police request,” Yeang Sothearin told journalists outside the prison. “We are continuing to urge the court to drop all charges against us so that we can do our jobs, living our lives as other people do.”
Uon Chhin vowed to stay in his profession.
“I love my job as a journalist,” he said.
Their employer welcomed their release on bail, while also calling for the charges against them to be dropped.
“The targeting and intimidation of anyone who has worked as an independent journalist in Cambodia is a clear violation of press freedom,” Washington-based Radio Free Asia president Libby Liu (劉仚) said. “With today’s development, we hope all charges against them are dropped and their case is immediately dismissed.”
Their arrests came during Cambodia’s crackdown on the media and political opponents before last month’s general election.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party swept the results in a vote widely seen as not fair or credible.
The official voter turnout was high, even though a boycott had been called by the main opposition party, which was dissolved last year by a court ruling seen as biased.
Hun Sen, who has been in office since 1985 and has held a tight grip on power since ousting a co-prime minister in a bloody 1997 coup, has a record of cracking down harshly when facing a serious challenge, then effecting reconciliation when he no longer feels threatened.
The pattern has kept human rights groups and Western governments off balance and moderates their criticism.
On Monday, four women jailed for participating in Cambodia’s land rights movement were freed under a royal pardon requested by Hun Sen.
One of those freed, Tep Vanny, had led protests against evictions from a lakeshore community in Phnom Penh where the government had granted concessions to develop a luxury residential and commercial community.
In September last year, Radio Free Asia closed its office in Cambodia after operating for 20 years, citing unprecedented government intimidation of the media.
By the end of last year, the government had closed more than a dozen radio stations, some of which had rebroadcast Radio Free Asia’s programs, and the English-language Cambodia Daily was forced to shut down.
The two reporters were no longer working for Radio Free Asia after their office closed, and police initially said they had been detained for running an unlicensed karaoke studio.
However, they were later accused of setting up a studio for the organization and charged with espionage.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman Ei Rin said it ordered the release on bail as requested by the journalists’ lawyer.
After their release, the two journalists went to a Buddhist temple to get a monk’s blessings, a rite meant to get rid of bad luck.
Their detention had been sharply criticized by rights groups and journalists’ associations.
The Committee to Protect Journalists yesterday said in a statement that it welcomed the journalists’ release on bail, “but they never should have been detained in the first place.”
“Authorities should drop these bogus charges and stop harassing journalists with frivolous accusations,” said Shawn Crispin, the New York-based group’s representative in Southeast Asia.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was