Leaked draft of Cambodia’s proposed cyber law reveals threat to free expression

TV news viewers in Cambodia are fed a steady diet of praise for the government and top officials. Whether they’re giving speeches that go on for hours, cutting a ribbon at a new development project, or shaking hands with foreign dignitaries, government leaders are presented only in the best possible light. News of a less positive nature – corruption, illegal land grabs, forced evictions, and violent police crackdowns on peaceful demonstrators – rarely makes the evening broadcast, the radio bulletin or the pages of the national Khmer-language newspapers. … But over the past few years, Cambodians have been looking to a new information source for their news: the Internet. Young people in particular have flocked to social media sites to share news, videos and pictures, and learn about the events in their country that the government would rather keep under wraps. … Several observers say that the new concern about online communication comes from the threat it poses to the government’s near monopoly on information.  …

Kyle James
http://www.dw.de/leaked-draft-of-cambodias-proposed-cyber-law-reveals-threat-to-free-expression/a-17629723