THE newsroom of the Cambodia Daily is littered with piles of proofs, pens without lids, an empty bottle of Tabasco sauce, a cat frolicking under the strip lighting—but no journalists. The country’s most prominent independent newspaper printed its final edition on September 4th, after the authorities suddenly presented it with an unpayable tax bill of $6.3m. The move forms part of a fierce new campaign against the government’s detractors ahead of elections due in July. Cambodia’s democracy, if not dead, is dying.
The largely foreign journalists of the Cambodia Daily managed to cover one last important story. Early on September 3rd Kem Sokha (pictured), leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the country’s main opposition, was arrested for treason with the help of 100 police. He now languishes in the miserable confines of a remote prison near the border with...Continue reading
from Asia http://ift.tt/2j6R3I1
EmoticonEmoticon