A newspaper editor began serving a one-year prison sentence today after the Supreme Court upheld his libel conviction for calling the country's two prime ministers a pair of thieves.
Hen Vipheak, editor of the New Liberty newspaper, expressed hope as he was led off to the capital's dilapidated, colonial-era T-3 prison that King Norodom Sihanouk soon would pardon him.Vipheak was the second editor in three months whose libel conviction under an old law from the U.N. administration of Cambodia has been upheld by the Supreme Court, despite a more lenient media law since passed by the Cambodian government.
The other editor, Chan Rattana, was freed after a week once Sihanouk got the support of First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh, his son, and Second Prime Minister Hun Sen. Rattana was convicted for calling the co-premiers "stupid" in his Voice of Khmer Youth newspaper.
The cases have highlighted the difficulties facing the Cambodian media, one of the most free-wheeling in the region, which have included the harassment, beating and murder of journalists.
But like the government itself, Cambodian journalists largely are still learning about democratic institutions. Readers complain many newspapers are filled with more insults than information.
In an article headlined "Country of Thieves," published in February 1995 and critical of rampant alleged government corruption, Vipheak called Ranariddh and Hun Sen "chiefs of the thieves."