Rights groups wary of ban on internet cafés

Rights workers cautioned yesterday that a sweeping ban on internet cafés near schools was little more than a thinly veiled act of censorship. Issued last month by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, the circular says all internet cafés within 500 metres of a school must be closed, and bans gaming. “This heavy-handed effort to shut down affordable and accessible venues for using the internet in Cambodia is not only legally unfounded, it is a transparent attempt to block part of the population’s access to independent sources of information through news sites and social media,” Naly Pilorge, director of rights group Licadho, said in a statement, which goes on to liken the circular to cyber-crime legislation in China and Vietnam. …

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