(TJA/IFEX) – The following is a statement by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), of which TJA is a member: SEAPA was alarmed by the 18 October 2003 murder in broad daylight of Chou Chetharith, a Cambodian broadcast reporter for the Ta Prum radio station (FM 90.5) in Phnom Penh. Witnesses said the murder took […]
(TJA/IFEX) – The following is a statement by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), of which TJA is a member:
SEAPA was alarmed by the 18 October 2003 murder in broad daylight of Chou Chetharith, a Cambodian broadcast reporter for the Ta Prum radio station (FM 90.5) in Phnom Penh.
Witnesses said the murder took place around 8 a.m. in the morning, when two men riding a 2003 model C-125 motorbike gunned down Chetharith as he was walking from his car to his office in the bustling downtown core of the capital. The bullet hit him in the back of the neck and killed him instantly.
According to the Sangkat Tuol Tumpoung II deputy police chief, the killing does not seem to have been motivated by robbery since nothing was stolen from the victim.
SEAPA condemns the murder as an inhumane act and a grave violation of press freedom in Cambodia.
The 37-year-old Chetharith was a deputy editor-in-chief at Ta Prum, which has been critical of the powers-that-be.
The incident followed Prime Minister Hun Sen’s expression of his dissatisfaction over the station’s comments about him.
SEAPA urges the Hun Sen government to show that there is no connection between it and the killings by seeing that the police investigation is stepped up and by insuring that the culprits are brought to trial.
Delay or irregularity in the investigation will have a negative impact on the Hun Sen government’s reputation, as Cambodia has a history of those in power suppressing their political opponents and its court system has no credibility.
SEAPA would like to stress that no single past culprit involved in the killing of journalists has been brought to justice. Since 1994, six Cambodian journalists have been murdered.
Despite the reportedly peaceful parliamentary elections in Cambodia a few months ago, the ensuing tense negotiations for power between the Cambodian People’s Party and the royalist Funcinpec party have put the lives of journalists at risk and served to undermine this precarious stage in the evolution of press freedom in Cambodia.
Since the 1993 general elections – the first elections to take place after the Paris Peace Accord – Cambodian journalists have been easy targets of political retribution. The continued factional political scene and the decline in professional and ethical standards have exposed local journalists to political manipulation.
SEAPA is the region’s first non-governmental media advocacy group. Founded in 1998, it has four member organizations based in Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.
