I STUDY on DEFAMATION CASE in CAMBODIAN PRESS LAW By
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by KDI School Archives STUDY ON DEFAMATION CASE IN CAMBODIAN PRESS LAW By Lyrattanak Tram THESIS Submitted to KDI School of Public Policy and Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY 2008 i STUDY ON DEFAMATION CASE IN CAMBODIAN PRESS LAW By Lyrattanak Tram THESIS Submitted to KDI School of Public Policy and Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY 2008 Supervisor Dong-Young KIM ii ABSTRACT Study on Defamation case in Cambodian Press Law By Lyrattanak Tram Since Cambodia emerges as a new democratic country amongst other ASEAN nations, the question is whether the professionalism of Journalism has been upheld. This is not to compare her with developed nations, where democracy and freedom of expression are part of their peoples’ daily living. In 2007, Cambodia ranks 85th out of 167 countries in terms of the freedom of the press, moving up over 20 places in two years, according to Reporters Without Borders. However, when cases are brought to courts regarding media, over 80 percent are charges against reporters for defamation. The study points out the significance of freedom of expression, especially amongst reporters in order to inform public audience, and any form of censorship should be abolished as well as better law to guarantee journalists’ rights be well formulated. i Acknowledgement I would like to give my sincere thanks to Professor Kim Dong Young who has extensively helped me in editing and giving great comments on my thesis. Furthermore, I would also like to thank my friends and colleagues who give enormous support to help me work hard on it. Secondly, my thank would go to my dearest friends and colleagues who have strenuously helped me in collected necessary information in order to have vast resources and do better paper as I have achieved. Importantly, I would like to sincerely thank my beloved parents who are the foundation of who I’ve become. Their love, encouragement and caring have been a helpful driving force to my thesis. ii TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENT .............................................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLE ......................................................................................................................................... iv I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 1 II. MEDIA REGULATION AND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS ............................................................. 3 1. INTERNATIONAL MEDIA AND PRESS LAW ............................................................................................. 5 2. DOMESTIC REGULATION ....................................................................................................................... 7 III. CAMBODIAN PRESS LAW ................................................................................................................ 8 1. OVERVIEW ON PRESS LAW ................................................................................................................... 8 2. ANALYSIS ON CAMBODIAN PRESS LAW................................................................................................ 9 a/ Right of Retraction or Reply .......................................................................................................... 10 b/ Content Restrictions ....................................................................................................................... 14 c/ Registration Regime ....................................................................................................................... 20 d/ Freedom of Information ................................................................................................................ 23 e/ Competition .................................................................................................................................... 25 f/ Publication of Official Information ............................................................................................... 26 IV. NEGATIVE IMPACTS ....................................................................................................................... 28 1. RELEVANT ARTICLES TO DEFAMATION AND DISINFORMATION ........................................................ 28 2. EXAMPLES OF THE MEDIA BEING CHARGED AND SUSPENDED ........................................................... 28 3. CASE STUDY ......................................................................................................................................... 41 V. EXTERNAL PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNMENT ....................................................................... 50 VI. RECOMMENDATION ....................................................................................................................... 54 1. TO THE GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT ......................................................................................... 56 2. TO THE MEDIA COMMUNITY AND MEDIA OUTLETS ......................................................................... 57 VII. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 59 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................. 61 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................................. 61 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................................. 68 APPENDIX C ............................................................................................................................................. 69 APPENDIX D ............................................................................................................................................. 70 APPENDIX E ............................................................................................................................................. 72 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................................... 74 iii List of Tables 1.1 Newspapers and their affiliations 29 1.2 Radio stations and their affiliations 30 1.3 Nuumber of cases occurred to media persons from 1994-2008 41 iv I. Introduction What motivated me to study this? One morning, picking up newspaper and not for the first time seeing media persons being charged, injured or sometimes killed without any felon brought before justice, I feel nausea and want to cry for righteousness. With background from Media school in Cambodia, it becomes my heart and bond that I enjoy the study of journalism. I have broadened my education to Public Policy, which I enjoy so much since I learn more about how tough discussion could be before decisions are made. I decided to combine these two fields of study and come up with my thesis topic. What is the hypothesis of this research? Cambodian Press Law, enacted since 1995, has negative impacts on freedom of expression. In other words, the government is not observing the law but abuse it by using it as a seal to accuse journalists who stand up against it or its allies. What are the research methods? I collected extensive information regarding reporters being alleged for defamation. I also talked relevant people regarding both the issue and the media situations in Cambodia. From that I gained broader knowledge of the subject and the situation, which would help me write this paper better. It is important to set criteria for defamation cases to be considered as abusive or normal What kind of questions I tried to answer? -What is the definition of media, freedom of expression or press freedom? -What is the status quo of international and domestic media? -Is the government observing the existing Press Law? -If not, what can be done to improve the situation? 1 What are the purposes of this research? The purpose of this study is to abolish as much existing censorship—all forms of censorships including self-censorship— to make a better and healthier Cambodian democracy, which is full of free media and a world where anyone can express his or her idea freely. What is the scope of this research? This is to cover nation-wide. However, since most of the cases occur in the city, the heart of broadcasting, politics, population and economics, it seems that the scope of the study is merely focused around the capital of Phnom Penh. But this study would well represent what happens in Cambodian media –defamation cases are usually brought to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. For this purpose, the following chapter will deeply address the principle of Cambodian Press Law; together it will analyze those provisions along with the actual cases. I will go through the Law from article to article, examining their