It was in the spring of 2017 that veteran Cambodia Daily reporters Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter traveled to Pate commune, the only constituency among 50 in Ratanakiri province that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, had failed to win in prior local elections.
Aiming to find out why Pate was the only commune in the rural province to back the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, or SRP, in 2012, Aun Pheap and Peter spent a day asking random locals about coming polls and interviewing then-incumbent SRP commune chief Romam Yuot.
Shortly after publishing the article, the reporters were faced with charges of “incitement to commit a felony,” while their employer was hit with a $6.3 million tax bill and a prime minister’s order to pay up or “pack up.”
