News
Obfuscation reigns over ban on demonstration
The government can’t seem to agree on whether or not Prime Minister Hun Sen has lifted the ban on the constitutional right to freedom of assembly. Last week, Mr. Hun Sen said in a speech: “I will not prevent [demonstrations] because everyone has equal rights,” which ...
Kuch Naren and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/obfuscation-reigns-over-ban-on-demonstration-53621/
Tuk-Tuk, Motorbike Drivers Want Vehicles Back
A dozen tuk-tuk and motorcycle-taxi drivers who say their vehicles were confiscated after police suppressed a demonstration in Phnom Penh last week gathered outside City Hall on Wednedsay to demand the return of their property. The drivers waited from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. hoping to ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tuk-tuk-motorbike-drivers-want-vehicles-back-51555/
Teachers Told to Expel Corruption From Classrooms
Just weeks after the country’s only independent teachers’ association staged a strike for higher wages, Phnom Penh’s education chief told teachers this week that they must stop taking bribes to comply with the government’s promised reform agenda. Speaking to about 500 educators, mainly school directors, from ...
Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/teachers-told-to-expel-corruption-from-classrooms-51158/
Interior Ministry Says No to Freedom Park Rally
The government will consider a planned union rally on Sunday of several thousand people at Freedom Park in Phnom Penh an attempt to “overthrow the government,” Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said on Friday. Phnom Penh municipality rejected the request to hold the rally, but ...
Sinary Sany
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/interior-ministry-says-no-to-freedom-park-rally-51032/
Chea Vichea Remembered 10 Years After Slaying
Ten years ago Wednesday, union leader Chea Vichea walked to his favorite newsstand in front of Wat Lanka to read the day’s headlines: Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered spending cuts, health officials were trying to handle the first outbreak of bird flu in Southeast ...
Khy Sovuthy and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chea-vichea-remembered-10-years-after-slaying-50962/
After Arrests, NGOs Continue Petitioning to ‘Free the 23′
Following the arrest of 11 activists on Tuesday as they attempted to deliver a petition to the U.S. and French embassies seeking the release of 23 jailed protesters, NGO representatives quietly delivered similar petitions to the Japanese Embassy and European Union headquarters Wednesday. The petitioners, representing ...
Aun Pheap and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-arrests-ngos-continue-petitioning-to-free-the-23-50966/
Union Leader Released; ‘Free the 23’ Protests To Continue
Phnom Penh police released union leader Sok Chhun Oeung from custody Monday, a day after dragging him off the street at a peaceful protest he had organized along Phnom Penh’s riverside against the detention of 23 men still in jail for participating in demonstrations over ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-released-free-the-23-protests-to-continue-50902/
11 Activists Arrested While Petitioning US, French Embassies
District security guards this morning arrested 11 political activists taking part in a protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh against the imprisonment of 23 protesters who were beaten and arrested earlier this month. The protesters, including union leader Rong Chhun and prominent ...
The Cambodia Daily News Staff
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/11-activists-arrested-while-petitioning-us-french-embassies-50916/
Union to Defy Order, March to Commemorate Chea Vichea’s Slaying
About 150 garment worker union representatives will defy a ban on public assemblies and mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of union leader Chea Vichea by marching from their office in Chamkar Mon district to the site of his murder at Wat Lanka on ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-to-defy-order-march-to-commemorate-chea-vicheas-slaying-50846/
Ministry of Information to Meet Sonando As Protests Loom
The Ministry of Information asked Mam Sonando, owner of the independent Beehive Radio station, to meet Friday after repeatedly rejecting a request he has made since 2005 for the expansion of his station’s reach into provincial areas. Mr. Sonando’s assistant, Huon Pannary, said that Buth Bou ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-of-information-to-meet-sonando-as-protests-loom-50844/
Opposition Youth Sing Against the Ban as Armed Police Patrol
A group of eight opposition CNRP youth supporters sang a single song near Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park before police deployed nearby had a chance to break up their concert on Thursday, a musical test of the new ban on public gatherings in the wake of ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/opposition-youth-sing-against-the-ban-as-armed-police-patrol-50401/
After Park Cleared, CNRP Leaders Called to Court
At 11:30 a.m. Saturday, municipal security guards and men in plainclothes, wielding steel bars, metal pipes, batons, sticks and axes, forcibly cleared hundreds of demonstrators from Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park, where the opposition CNRP has been protesting against the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/security-guards-police-clear-freedom-park-50086/
City Hall Warns Monks Over Political Activism
Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong warned monks Thursday that if they do not follow orders to keep out of politics, they could create a rift within the monkhood that could threaten the very existence of Buddhism in the country. Mr. Socheatvong also said that if monks ...
Mech Dara and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-warns-monks-over-political-activism-49496/
Levi Strauss Pulls Out From Embattled SL Garment Factory
A Singaporean-owned garment factory whose workers have been on strike since early August is no longer producing clothes for American denim giant Levi Strauss, a brand representative and a factory worker said Monday. The workers of SL Garment Factory in Meanchey district—which still makes clothes for ...
Aun Pheap and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/levi-strauss-pulls-out-from-embattled-sl-garment-factory-44015/
Interior Ministry Releases Its Account of Monivong Bridge Clashes
Interior Minister Sar Kheng has chastised the opposition CNRP for holding its demonstration in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park last week for longer than authorized, and blamed the party for the deadly violence that took place near Monivong Bridge. A 29-year-old construction worker was shot dead while ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/interior-ministry-releases-its-account-of-monivong-bridge-clashes-42909/
Japanese Investor in Talks to Take Stake in TV3
Japan’s TriAsia Group is in talks to acquire a majority stake in local television station TV3 and plans to broadcast Japanese-language shows, the television channel’s owner confirmed Wednesday. According to TV3’s owner, Khampun Keomony, revenues at the channel have been dropping, which prompted him to look ...
Hul Reaksmey and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/japanese-investor-in-talks-to-take-stake-in-tv3-41707/
Eight More Charged Over Violent Factory Protest
A court official at the Kompong Speu Provincial Court said Monday that a total of 16 union representatives have been charged with damaging property and inciting violence during a protest outside a garment factory earlier this month, twice the number of arrests previously confirmed. Provincial Judge ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eight-more-charged-over-violent-factory-protest-31214/
Japanese Funder Blames City Hall
Japan’s aid arm, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is funding a drainage project along Phnom Penh’s Street 63, said yesterday that while it was true sections of the busy road remained in a deplorable condition, responsibility lay with City Hall. “This is [a] ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/japanese-funder-blames-streets-ruin-on-city-hall-29321/
Standards Building Up Safety Fears
When a 100-metre-long section of a Phnom Penh garment factory crumpled in on itself like a cheap pup tent, Sen Sok district officials promised an investigation. The results of that investigation, which was to have taken place more than a year ago, in March 2012, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052265780/National/standards-building-up-safety-fears.html
City Orders Removal of a Dozen Newspaper Stands
Phnom Penh authorities have ordered 12 newspaper kiosks to leave a major road in the capital, saying they need them to relocate for 12 months for construction but giving them no other place to go. Owners of the kiosks, which are popular in the sale of ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/city-orders-removal-of-a-dozen-newspaper-stands/1575403.html
City Hall May Cut Airport Expansion Project in Half
The 30,000-square-meter expansion of Phnom Penh International Airport may be halved, saving some of the 262 families living on adjacent land from eviction, a government official said yesterday. Despite the possible change in plans, a majority of families could still face eviction because they live ...
Boat owners complain new port a burden for business
The Phnom Penh Municipality opened a new port for boat operators along the riverside in Daun Penh district yesterday in an effort to regulate operations, keep the river clean, and ensure customer safety. The new port comes three years after City Hall banned boats from docking ...
Claim about quantity of city's plastic waste prompts debate
It was supposed to be about supermarkets helping the planet by cutting down on plastic bags, but it turned into a war of words – and a veritable duel of conflicting data – over just how many plastic products Phnom Penh’s population discards each day. On ...
Questioning begins in two Boeng Kak court cases
Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summoned two residents of the Boeng Kak lake community to appear for questioning today and Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit filed against them by City Hall, a court official said yesterday. The families of the accused have been left out of ...