Social development

The rights group, HRW, had called for the release of Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, two Radio Free Asia reporters who were jailed on treason charges for allegedly continuing to work for RFA after it had left the country under government pressure. ...

The lawmakers were set to discuss the Cambodia Democracy Act and an amendment that could see Phnom Penh handed further sanctions over its crackdown on the opposition, civil society, and independent media. ...

About 100 security personnel were deployed yesterday to evict 600 residents who have been occupying Wat Chas pagoda in Chroy Changva district after they refused to retreat pending a Land Management Ministry decision on a petition to solve land disputes in three provinces. ...

More than 100 Koh Kong province villagers returned to the Land Management Ministry office in Phnom Penh demanding that the authorities speed up the distribution process of three hectares of land owed to each family as compensation in two districts after authorities declared it had ...

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Cambodian authorities to end “baseless” convictions of former opposition officials and activists ahead of this year’s general election. The prominent US-based rights group said in a statement on Monday that the authorities should throw out the cases against 11 ...

Human rights groups and former opposition officials have expressed concerns over the impact of the recent sale of the Phnom Penh Post newspaper to a Malaysian investor with historical ties to Prime Minister Hun Sen. ...

All but a handful of foreign journalists on staff at The Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia’s last remaining independent daily newspaper, resigned on Wednesday. Citing differences over the meaning of “editorial independence,” they quit within days after new owners fired its editor-in-chief who refused to remove a published ...

Kay Kimsong was fired on Monday after representatives of the new owner ordered senior staff to remove an article about the sale from its website, claiming factual inaccuracies.​ ...

More than half of the villagers who fell ill after drinking contaminated water or methanol-laced rice wine in Kratie province’s Chetr Borei district last week have returned home after receiving treatment. ...

Ten representatives of Banong ethnic villagers from five districts in Mondulkiri were questioned for more than an hour by police on Tuesday for their attempt to seek intervention from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet over the loss of sacred land to 11 families. ...

In four months this year, the Apsara Authority has allowed people living in the Angkor area to build and repair 354 houses or do light construction in order to help facilitate their living conditions. ...

Saturday’s announcement by Post Media CEO Bill Clough identified the buyer of the English-language Phnom Penh Post as Sivakumar G., who was described as having an experienced journalist’s background and representing a strong investment group from Malaysia. No price was given. ...

Saturday’s announcement of the sale of The Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia’s oldest and most respected newspaper, came as no surprise to many who had been following recent events in the country. Rumors had circulated for months about the fate of the country’s last independent English-language ...

Indigenous families in Kbal Romeas village who were displaced last year by flooding from the reservoir of the Lower Sesan II Dam in Stung Treng province have been given new homes and hope for a better life in a new village along National Road 78. ...

Minister of Women’s Affairs Ing Kantha Phavi’s admission last week that she was unable to name a Cambodian woman journalist sparked a minor controversy on social media, with current and former journalists taking to social media to criticise her remarks. ...

As the world celebrated Press Freedom Day on Thursday, the mood among Cambodian journalists was subdued following a months-long crackdown on dissent in the media. The theme of this year’s event was “Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law”, and special attention ...

Cambodia’s higher education sector – which education officials last month said lacks a clear vision – will undergo improvements under a six-year project financed by a $90 million no-interest loan from the World Bank. ...

The Health Ministry and the National Centre for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control (CENAT) will investigate to find cases of tuberculosis at locations where many people live and in high-risk groups to reduce the rate of sickness and deaths from TB by 2030. ...

The government has called on all relevant institutes and local authorities, as well as international development partners, to help make Cambodia a malaria-free country. Prime Minister Hun Sen released a letter this week to celebrate World Malaria Day today under the theme Ready to Beat ...

King Norodom Sihamoni, in an opening speech on Monday to Cambodia’s newly minted Senate, urged the legislative body to uphold human rights and justice. King Sihamoni warmly congratulated the 62-member Senate on its new mandate following almost a year of what observers have described as ...

Twenty years ago, on April 15, 1998, Pol Pot, the leader of Cambodia’s genocidal government during the late 1970s, died in his sleep at the age of 73. Born Saloth Sar, Pol Pot was never held accountable for the crimes committed during the three years, eight ...

A local election watchdog on Wednesday issued a statement denying that it intended to destroy the upcoming national election on July 29. In its statement on Wednesday, the Committee for Free and Fair Election in Cambodia responded to media reports that accused it of aiming ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday announced the creation of a foundation to raise money to support the country’s five Kantha Bopha children’s hospitals in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Hun Sen also said tycoon Kith Meng had donated property valued at $8 million that ...

Nearly 20 people representing more than 100 families in Koh Kong province’s Thma Baing district yesterday gathered in Phnom Penh to submit petitions at various institutions requesting intervention to gain official recognition of the Chong indigenous people in Areng Valley. ...