Fears as Cambodia's 'last independent' newspaper sold

PHNOM PENH: A newspaper hailed as Cambodia's last independent English day-to-day has been bought to a Malaysian investor with apparent industry links to premier Hun Sen, damn a journalist community that has been battered by the strongman forward of elections.
Bill Clough, the Australian publisher of the 26-year-old Phnom Penh Post, stated in a commentary Saturday that the paper were purchased by a Malaysian investor recognized only as "Sivakumar G".

The announcement didn't divulge the price of the sale or any data at the new owner's different ventures.

But an individual just about the matter confirmed to AFP that the buyer is the head of Asia PR, a public family members company founded in Kuala Lumpur whose site describes its CEO "Siva Kumar G" as a journalist by coaching.

The site lists as a former consumer Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose govt stands accused of a sweeping crackdown on independent media, NGOs and rival politicians forward of July polls.

An Asia PR spokeswoman declined to comment.

The sale, which stuck the newspaper's group of workers by surprise, unexpectedly raised issues about a contracting area for independent media in a rustic that lost its different primary English newspaper last year.

"The Post is really the last remaining newspaper that comes out every day and does long investigations on corruption, illegal logging and politics," stated Abby Seiff, a Cambodia-based freelance journalist and former Phnom Penh Post editor.

"The journalist community is concerned about what the implication (of the sale) could be. It's just two months until the election and there's not much independent media left," she added.

In his commentary, former owner Clough said that "turbulence" in Cambodia forward of elections had put a focus at the Phnom Penh Post and left it as "the last remaining truly independent media group in the country".

The Post's leader rival, the Cambodia Daily, used to be forced to shut in August 2017 after it used to be handed an unpayable tax bill -- saying its closure the same day government arrested opposition chief Kem Sokha on treason charges.

The crackdown also noticed dozens of radio stations taken off the air and the jailing of two journalists from Radio Free Asia, which close its bureau after 20 years due to a series of felony threats.

Cambodia fell 10 puts in this year's media freedom score by Reporters Without Borders, which described the country as webhosting a "climate of terror that has drastically curtailed press freedom".

In fresh months local media had reported that the Phnom Penh Post used to be facing tax troubles.

Clough's commentary stated "publicised tax claims" were settled with the federal government last week and that the paper now faces "no threat to its ability to continue its work".

Chad Williams, a former Phnom Penh Post editor-in-chief, stated the quick settling of the tax bill and look of a purchaser "strongly suggests the government approves of the sale."

"And it's hard to imagine they would approve if they thought the new ownership planned to maintain the paper's role as the country's sole remaining watchdog," he added.

The Post, founded by American journalist Michael Hayes in 1992, is seen as a key pillar of the country's fragile democracy, which observers say has taken a nosedive in recent times as Hun Sen clears out opposition politicians and different critical voices.