The United States and Australian embassies are leading calls for the reinstatement of the independent media outlet, Voice of Democracy (VOD), which was closed by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen for apparently upsetting his son and heir Hun Manet.
However, such calls are likely to fall on deaf ears with state media going into overdrive in an attempt to justify a decision that seemed way out of proportion and made in response to a journalist who reported what a government spokesman had said.
The reporter quoted, accurately, the government spokesman as saying Hun Manet had signed off on a US$100,000 aid package to Turkey in response to the Feb. 6 earthquake.
