Gunmen shot and killed a newspaper publisher in the streets of the capital, in the latest attack on journalists critical of Cambodia's coalition government.
Two people on a motorcycle shot Thun Bunly three times from behind as he drove his motorcycle through Phnom Penh on Friday, police said Saturday.Publisher of the Khmer Ideal newspaper and a member of the opposition Khmer Nation Party, Thun Bunly wrote articles critical of the two-party government created by U.N.-sponsored elections in 1993.
The first freely elected government in decades, the regime is accused by human rights groups of trying to intimidate the media through violence and legal pressure.
The shooting was the fourth killing of a journalist since the elections and the second attack this year. A radio announcer was wounded in February.
Information Ministry official Khieu Kanharith appealed to authorities to bring the publisher's killers to justice.
The government has denied involvement in the attacks, most of which have targeted journalists who have spoken out against the regime's alleged abuses.