The free press in Cambodia is under attack and we should be paying attention

University of Limerick lecturer and former Cambodia Daily journalist, Fergal Quinn, reflects on a worrying and largely unreported attack on freedom of expression in Cambodia and what lessons we in the west shoud take from what is happening.

“You have one channel, we have 39 channels. If you curse me, you will receive bad merit. Those who [previously] cursed me already disappeared from the world.”

THIS was Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s response to a fairly anodyne question at a press conference in 2008.