http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html en Copyright 2009 Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:55:49 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I'm sorry if I missed out on last month's rendez-vous but first of all I was not in Cambodia and second, one of the paradoxes of Digital Divide made access to the Internet more difficult in Belgium than in Cambodia... In Cambodia connections are (very) expensive and slow but there are Internet cafés on many streetcorners. In Belgium connections are fast (and expensive also) but there are few Internet cafés. Now that I'm back in Phnom Penh I'll catch up on events here. But as a follow-up on the previous issue of the Khmer Chronicles I'd rather have had something else to talk about than this... Cambodia. Phnom Penh. 13/07/2008. The cremation ceremony of Khem Sambo took place at the Toul Tompoung pagoda. © John Vink/Magnum Photos Khem Sambo, 47 yrs, a journalist at the pro-opposition daily Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience), was killed, together with his 21 yr old son, by five bullets fired in the middle of a busy street by a lone gunner on a motorbike near the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh on July 11th. The reasons for this killing are not clear yet, and considering the previous murders of journalists (12 since 1993), they will probably remain obscure. It is too early and one can only speculate. Has it to do with the elections (we are two weeks away from the polling date)? Did Sambo know things he shouldn't have known about government involvement in casino gambling? But for sure Sambo's director, Dam Seth, who happens to be on the Sam Rainsy Party list (opposition) for the coming elections, is involved in a legal struggle with Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on issues about the Minister's alleged participation as a cadre in the Boeung Trabek reeducation camp during the Khmer Rouge regime. So was it to intimidate his boss that a good journalist and his innocent son were killed in cold blood on a busy street? Whatever the reason, a journalist's assassination is always a serious matter. Especially so in a country where separations of the powers are not yet fully perceived by all as being essential to a workable democracy. Once the watchdogs will have stopped barking there will be few limits for abuse... I bear with the suffering of Khem Sambo's family. I bear with my Cambodian colleagues and hope they will not give in to fear. There is a multimedia slideshow of the funeral on the Ka-set website.]]> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html <p>Well i'wan't you to make a good car about politic accusation.<br /> That interesting for some's to place the probleme in politic ( good or not behind you ) Than tuch the real source.</p> <p>Please make real car to this "mode" to input evry thing at politic. It is darty but real simplicity and very destructif for the world population health.</p> <p>Think to care about this notice.<br /> Xavier. ( and please don't forget to make your work and not those of other ( it' gentel to tel you this)) Remember one of you with "saffre".</p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-21345 <p>Thanks.</p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-21348 <p>Xavier, feel free to write in French if you feel more comforable with that.</p> <p>If I understand well what you're saying: I am not accusing, I am stating facts and asking questions. But when you hear Touch Naroth, Chief of Police for the capital, estimating that 70% chances are that the kiling was dictated by personal vengeance and 30% that it was just to steal the motorbike, I find myself having some doubts, considering the context in which the murder took place. I'm not ruling out these official "scenarios", especially when personal vengeance can be politically motivated. No one knows yet what is behind this killing. Let's wait and see.</p> <p>But however you look at it, the loss of a journalist in a young democracy always is a loss for democracy.</p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-21377 <p>John, painful news again from Cambodia.</p> <p>how was the murder treated by the local press, coverage wise? How do jpurnalists not (too) indeoded to the power react as a group? Maybe silly to ask, cambodia is always more about questions than answers, </p> <p>somehow it would be great if you can give us a topo on the state of journalim and press coverage in the country, circa 2008, as you see it. Do you think there is always a risk for anyone trying to act independantly? How are you guys doing at Kaset? Ok, ok, more questions, probably not fitting in this forum. </p> <p>PS; quickly: I regretted not being able to meet you at the magnum "bal", David told me you left early, and well, it did not help that I did know names more than faces, that night. Quite an event to be invited there, needless say.</p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-21444 <p>Hervé,</p> <p>there is a very comprehensive report called "Reading Between the Lines: How Politics, Money & Fear Control Cambodia's Media Report 2008" at LICADHO's website ( http://www.licadho.org/reports.php )</p> <p>Glad you enjoyed the party.</p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-21587 <p>it is terrifying to be informed of the death of these species death.the most endangered lives do not live in the tropics or the rainforests or in the polar regions of this world.they are with us-on the streets,in offices,all around us,we as well.without them the world gets stranger to the estranged and terrifying to the preys.it's up to us to let our voices cry out with passionate strength.</p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-21620 <p>keep asking questions and keep stating facts, that is what journalists are supposed to do and they are the real guardians of democracy.</p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-21621 <p>Thanks for the link, John. </p> <p>And hopefully, maybe a glitch and not on topic regarding media censorship, but it seems that http://ka-set.info/ is off the "air" as of this morning. </p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-21685 <p>Herve: Ka-set is back on. It was an hour-long failure of the server. To all: there is a multimedia presentation of the funeral (and many other stories) at http://ka-set.info/actualites/k7-media.html<br /> No need to read French or Khmer for those: just sound and pictures...</p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-21729 <p>Dear JV,<br /> I'm a khmer, speaking and writing khmer, french and american a bit of each. Motorbike killing like this took place around july 1997, before second legislative elections, when all french-supported actors prepared for the return of democracy. Cambodia is full of talking-patriots; killed journalists become real patriots, but not so many people including (the king and) I (me) would risk their life for patriotism. This being said, our thai cousins in Surin sure know that you know them. All are khmer including those in Krung Thep's royal palace, just like Chinese and Jap are all chinese.</p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-24031 <p>Dear JV,<br /> I'm a khmer, speaking and writing khmer, french and american a bit of each. Motorbike killing like this took place around july 1997, before second legislative elections, when all french-supported actors prepared for the return of democracy. Cambodia is full of talking-patriots; killed journalists become real patriots, but not so many people including (the king and) I (me) would risk their life for patriotism. This being said, our thai cousins in Surin sure know that you know them. All are khmer including those in Krung Thep's royal palace, just like Chinese and Jap are all chinese.<br /> </p> http://blog.magnumphotos.com/2008/07/the_khmer_chronicles_issue_nr_10_maybe_it_is_a_dangerous_place_after_all.html#comment-49854