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Access to information law set to be approved this year, ministry pledges
Fri, 28 May 2021
The Ministry of Information has pledged to conclude consultations with the Ministry of Justice on the draft law on access to information soon.
“[It will be] submitted to the Office of the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly for approval this year,” Meas Sophorn, undersecretary of state and spokesman for the Ministry of Information told The Post on May 27.
The draft law is currently with the Ministry of Justice which is poring over the penalty chapter.
Earlier, Sophorn who was speaking at the World Press Freedom high-level forum on May 27, said the draft law was open to discussion with various stakeholders in Cambodia, including UN agencies and relevant civil society organisation, who were part of the working group since the beginning of the draft.
The Ministry of Information has called on all media owners who have not yet registered fully to do so by the end of this year as failure to do so will result in their licences being revoked.
AFP
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases continued to surge in continental Southeast Asia on Tuesday with a spike in Cambodia prompting the government to threaten legal action against journalists who cover stories in “red zone” areas with strict lockdowns.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Information said local and foreign media coverage of the red zone has “confused the public and provoked social chaos that will lead to more COVID-19 spreading.”
“In order to protect social security and prevent COVID-19 from spreading, the Ministry of Information is advising journalists to halt all actions immediately,” it said in a statement issued Tuesday. “In the event that people continue to ignore this notice, [we] will take legal action.”
RFA
Nearly four dozen nongovernmental organization marked World Press Freedom Day in Cambodia on Monday by urging the government to ensure that reporters can carry out their work free from fear of retaliation amid the country’s worst outbreak of the coronavirus to date.
In a joint statement, the 45 NGOs expressed concern over what they said is “the continued deterioration of the media environment in Cambodia” and urged the government “to cease the ongoing harassment of independent media outlets and journalists for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of expression.”
Additionally, the groups also called on the government “to end the rampant impunity against attacked and murdered journalists, to immediately repeal repressive legislation undermining fundamental freedoms including press freedom and to ensure that any future legislation is drafted in line with Cambodia’s human rights obligations and through a transparent and consultative process wit
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The concept of press freedom is a universal ideal that governs the rights of journalists and other people in the media to carry out their duties without fear of censorship and persecution.
While that s a good thing, it s not necessarily implemented equally throughout the world. Some have it better, some have it worse. And some just don t have it at all.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international NGO with consultative status at the United Nations, has released their 2021 World Press Freedom Index, an annual ranking of press freedom spanning 180 countries across the world.