New owner of Phnom Penh Post denies Cambodian government launched crackdown on independent press
The Malaysian businessman refused to reveal the price of the sale of the newspaper or how a US$3.9 million tax bill was settled as part of the purchase
The new Malaysian owner of one of Cambodia’s major newspapers has brushed off suggestions of a far-reaching media crackdown and vehemently denied links to Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled for 33 years, as concerns about the country’s press freedom deepen.
In a fiery press conference in the capital Phnom Penh on Friday, Malaysian businessman Siva Kumar Ganapathy blasted former Phnom Penh Post journalists as “careless, malicious and defamatory” in their reporting of his purchase of the Post from Australian mining magnate Bill Clough.
He referred to a report about the purchase that was published on May 6 – a day after the April 11 sale was announced. Kay Kimsong, the editor-in-chief, was fired the day after the report appeared in print.
I am a journalist by training and discipline, I am a bit confused by why journalists today … should be critical?
The Post’s story detailed links between Ganapathy’s public relations firm, AsiaPR, and Hun Sen during the early stages of his rise to power. The company’s website also said it engaged in “covert PR”.
After the owner demanded the story be removed from the Post’s website – it was later replaced with a different version on a separate topic – all foreign journalists and editors on May 7-8 walked out of the paper, leaving an entirely Cambodian editorial team.
“I cannot allow journalists who manufacture news to be a part of a highly esteemed media organisation such as the Phnom Penh Post and as journalists, they will have to be responsible and accountable for their actions,” Ganapathy said.
Asked if there had been a crackdown on media in Cambodia, Ganapathy said it was “new to me” and “I cannot say that”.
Insisting on his own journalistic credentials – dating from the 1970s to the late 2000s, for both independent and Malaysian state-backed newspapers – Ganapathy said the job of a reporter was to state facts but not to criticise.
