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Independent radio station in Cambodia shut on order of PM
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Journalists take photographs at a newsroom of the Voice of Democracy, VOD office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen on Sunday, Feb. 12, ordered one of the handful of independent media broadcasters to shut down for publishing an article he said intentionally slandered his son in connection with the country's relief assistance to earthquake victims in Turkey. - photo by AP Photo/Heng Sinith
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — One of Cambodia’s last free media outlets, Voice of Democracy radio, on Monday ceased operations after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered its closure for allegedly slandering his son by misreporting a story about aid to earthquake-struck Turkey. The story, which was also published on the website of VoD, as the station is better known, claimed that Hun Sen’s son, Lt. Gen. Hun Manet, had signed the document on his father’s behalf authorizing the $100,000 donation for quake relief aid. Hun Sen said the article misinterpreted the facts and that only the prime minister has the authority to make decisions on foreign aid.