Cambodia: repression of journalists and activists deepens ahead of 2022 elections

The disbanding of the opposition came shortly after the June 2017 commune elections, in which the CNRP won nearly 44 per cent of the seats. Its strong showing led analysts to believe that the party was dissolved amid fears it could beat the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in the 2018 national elections.

In autumn 2017 CNRP President Kem Sokha was arrested on treason charges and many of the party’s top leaders went into exile. Dozens of CNRP members were arrested in the intervening years, and more than 100 were barred from politics for five years. At the local and national level, seats held by the opposition were distributed among other parties. Today, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party holds all 125 seats in parliament and over 95 per cent of commune seats.

Repression has worsened in the intervening years, with even minimal criticism met with severe punishment.

In spite of an ostensible separation between powers, Cambodia’s judiciary is deeply politicised, with government-appointed judges widely alleged to be lacking impartiality.

Anne Ramberg, Co-Chair of the IBA’s Human Rights Institute and former Secretary-General of the Swedish Bar Association, says the latest cases represent ‘a deeply worrying trend that has been going on the last years where the country is sliding away from democracy and the rule of law.’

‘The harassment, arrest of and attacks on journalists and other perceived opponents have increased,’ she says. ‘The technique used is seen in many countries. The courts as well as the prosecutors lack independence and seem to be under the control of the executive power. The undermining of civil society and the disrespect for national and international law is indeed very tragic.’

The Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association reported that it had recorded ‘38 cases of harassment against journalists, involving 56 journalists,’ between January and early September.

Harassment to create a chilling effect represents just one end of the spectrum. At the far end are the steep charges and sentences that have been handed down to activists.

But while prominent activists like Chhun have long drawn the ire of the government – and been treated accordingly – courts appear to be increasingly taking up cases against relatively obscure individuals. Two of Chhun’s co-defendants were sentenced to 20 months in prison after protesting his arrest, for example.

The cumulative impact of these arrests and others – such as those of the environmentalists who filmed the sewage – is to create a chilling effect among ordinary citizens, say observers. As a result, journalists and others report that they increasingly self-censor their work, public statements and social media posts.

Sopheap of CCHR says the most recent cases represent a ‘heightened targeting of activists [that] is also reflective of the ever-worsening deterioration of the human rights situation in Cambodia.’

‘Activists operate in an increasingly dangerous and restrictive environment and imprisonment has sadly become a common price to pay by all those who dare to speak out for human rights in Cambodia,’ she explains. ‘Despite the international commitments that the RGC [Royal Government of Cambodia] has made, it has shown no genuine efforts to redress the dire human rights situation in the country.’

Sopheap adds that, instead, authorities are relentless in their efforts to curtail fundamental freedoms and to use repressive tactics to suppress critical voices. They do this by means including ‘enacting repressive laws and weaponizing the subservient judiciary to harass human rights defenders, opposition members, and other dissidents.’