The Cambodia Daily

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has met with supporters of James Ricketson — an Australian filmmaker detained in Cambodia on spying charges — and called for his release.

Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen denied on Tuesday that 20 small and little-known political parties registered to compete in July 29 national elections were created by his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to provide an illusion of political opposition in the coming polls.

The problems are deeper than the lack of a viable opposition party.

The Phnom Penh Post newspaper has been sold to a Malaysian buyer who goes by various names. After some days of confusion, he announced he was Sivakumar S Ganapathy, despite the fact that a press release on the sale of the Post by former Australian owner Bill Clough named him as Sivakumar G (Siva).

Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior has threatened to seize the assets of officials from the country’s now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) if they do not end a call to boycott the general election in July, drawing concern from observers who say there is no legal precedent to do so.

Cambodian police have arrested a 70-year-old barber for allegedly insulting the king, the second such case since a controversial lese majeste law was introduced this year.

Cambodia's National Election Committee (NEC) on Monday released the code of conduct for national and international observers in the forthcoming national election.

Despite some incremental progress, deeper questions remain unresolved.

Head of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk flew home to a Cambodia still suffering political assassinations, ambushes and shelling on the eve of the country’s first multiparty election in decades. “They need me,” the former king said of his people, who have suffered authoritarian rule, bloody revolutionary experimentation, American bombing, Vietnamese invasion and civil war — all since the late 1960s.

Several minor opposition parties who have registered to stand in the upcoming national election have expressed concern over calls from the country’s former main opposition party for a boycott of the vote.

Five people, including a four-year-old child, were killed instantly in a lightning strike in southwestern Cambodia, officials said on Friday (May 18), as the onset of the rainy season draws near.

A Cambodian court on Friday extended the pre-trial detention of two Radio Free Asia journalists who have been in prison for six months while espionage charges, which critics say are part of a crushing crackdown on independent media, are investigated.

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) has condemned the continued detention, which has now exceeded six months, of two former Radio Free Asia (RFA) journalists, Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, since their arrest on November 14, 2017.

The Malaysian businessman refused to reveal the price of the sale of the newspaper or how a US$3.9 million tax bill was settled as part of the purchase

U.S. lawmakers on Thursday advanced a proposed bill that would place further sanctions on senior Cambodian officials following the months-long crackdown on the opposition and civil society ahead of July’s national elections.

After 60 years, Malaysia got its first change of leadership when voters at the weekend booted out the ruling Barisan Nasional party and premier Najib Razak.