In the wake of last week’s government threat to shutter Beehive Radio, a parliamentary committee has summoned the Minister of Information to “clarify” the issue before the National Assembly this week, officials said Sunday.
In a letter signed by both National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranarridh and Princess Norodom Vacheara, the Assembly’s Commission on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Information and Media has asked Minister of Information Lu Laysreng to discuss his ministry’s threat last week to close Beehive Radio.
The letter, which called for Lu Laysreng to testify during Tuesday’s session, did not go into any details and was worded in a polite, invitation-style memo. But in a separate letter, Funcinpec Assembly Member Keo Remy said Lu Laysreng’s ultimatum did not give enough evidence to breach Beehive’s rights to free speech and expression.
“Cambodia has a free press law, but as of now, the broadcasting media in Cambodia does not have a specific law for the freedom of expression,” according to an unofficial translation of Keo Remy’s note.
Last week, Lu Laysreng wrote Beehive founder and president Mam Sonando and told him to stop playing live feeds from the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia broadcasts or have the government close the station down.
In this case, Keo Remy said Sunday, the government overreached.
“I have searched all the laws related to the media. The reason given for stopping the Beehive station from broadcasting VOA and RFA wasn’t correct and abused the law,” Keo Remy said.
Local journalists also blasted the ministry’s decision.
“We regard this act as an abuse of the Khmer people’s rights to receive information,” the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists wrote in a Khmer-language news release issued Friday.
International and national aid groups have lauded Cambodia for giving its print media full rein, but have repeatedly admonished the country for its control of broadcast media, which has much more influence because it has a much bigger audience. During this year’s commune council elections, election monitors criticized the government for not giving full access to the media for all parties.
Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America, both funded by the US, typically broadcast in countries living under dictatorships. The government has repeatedly denied the two agencies broadcasting licenses, which force them to go to shortwave radio. Beehive has picked up their live feeds and broadcasted them on FM 105. Because they did so without permits, the Ministry of Information said, they were breaking the law.
For Keo Remy, the threatened closure had nothing to do with permits and everything to do with RFA’s and VOA’s journalistic independence.
“The two radios are very useful. They teach English and raise the problem of the people’s misery to the government’s attention,” Keo Remy said.
The shutdown is an attempt to stifle alternative points of view and crushes one of the few independent and committed lights in Cambodia, Keo Remy said.
However, the reason parliament has asked for “clarification,” and not been more confrontational with the Minister of Information—a member of Funcinpec—is because many legislators suspect Lu Laysreng is being pressured by those who wish to squelch VOA and RFA broadcasts for political reasons, Keo Remy said.
“If there is truth being spoken, people will understand about the elections. This will affect the political parties practicing dictatorship,” Keo Remy said, referring to Funcinpec’s coalition partner, the ruling CPP.
Lu Laysreng could not be reached for comment, but the government has denied any political motivation for threatening to shut down Beehive.
It is a matter of following the rules, which Mam Sonando did not, government spokesman and CPP member Khieu Kanharith said Sunday.
“Parliamentarians who criticize the closure—they don’t know about the law. All international broadcasting needs permission from the government. They should learn the laws,” Khieu Kanharith said.
Mam Sonando Sunday expressed “hope” the government would let him continue with the live feeds, which he suspended Thursday. In any case, the crackdown is hypocritical, he said.
“There are many radio stations—Vietnamese, French and the [British Broadcasting Corporation]—that can be broadcast,” Mam Sonando said. “Why is it that VOA and RFA, which broadcasts in Khmer, cannot?”
