The day Kea Sokun was arrested in Cambodia, four men in plainclothes showed up at his photography shop and carted him off to the police station. The men said they needed to know why Mr. Kea Sokun had written the songs.
They kept asking me who was behind me. What party do you support? Mr. Kea Sokun spoke. I told them that I have never voted and no one controls me.
A judge sentenced the artist to 18 months in an overcrowded prison after he was found guilty of inciting social unrest with his lyrics. Dozens of people have been sent to jail for posting jokes, poems, pictures, private messages and songs on the internet as part of a campaign.
Cambodia has a new law that will allow the authorities to monitor all web traffic. Critics say that the decree puts Cambodia on a growing list of countries that have embraced China's authoritarian model of internet surveillance, from Vietnam to Turkey, and that it will deepen the clash over the future of the web.
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They kept asking me who was behind me. The rapper Kea Sokun asked what party he should vote for. He was in prison for a year.
The National Internet Gateway will send all internet traffic from abroad to a government portal. The gateway is mandatory for all service providers and gives state regulators the ability to prevent and remove network connections that affect national income, security, social order, morality, culture, traditions and customs.
Cambodia has a high level of government monitoring. The internet is monitored by each ministry. The Ministry of Interior is the center of the country's robust security apparatus. Those found guilty of inciting can be sent to prison.
The new law will make it easier for the authorities to monitor and punish online content, and that the recent arrests are meant to intimidate citizens into self-censorship in a country where free speech is guaranteed in the Constitution.
A dean at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, whose family escaped the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, said that China is an example of an authoritarian state that gives Cambodia political cover, new technology and financial resources.
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The capital of Cambodia is called Phnom Penh. The government will soon have the power to keep an eye on the internet. Cindy was a writer for The New York Times.
He said that the National Internet Gateway was centralizing control over Cambodia's internet. The outcome will be to crush what little remains of freedom of expression online.
The Cambodian authorities have 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 800-313-5780 The chief government spokesman said there is a free press and internet in Cambodia. We encourage people to use the internet.
The United Nations experts who have criticized the law as working part-time jobs were accused of spreading paranoia. He said he was sorry for the young people who had been arrested.
He said that with freedom comes responsibility. We warn them. We lecture them, make them sign documents, then the next week they post the same things, without taking responsibility to maintain peace and stability.
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The chief government spokesman in Cambodia was interviewed in November. The decree is essential for peace and security.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985 and has shown great zeal when publicly condemning his political rivals, appears eager to transfer his opprobrium to the digital era.
Mr. Hun Sen ordered the police to hunt down the monk after he posted a poem about the loss of the nation's forests on the prime minister's Facebook page. He was arrested in October.
A former agriculture professor was sentenced to 18 months in prison for making jokes about chickens wearing anti-covid masks. He was accused of defaming the prime minister and the minister of agriculture.
A frustrated farmer posted a video of tons of his harvest going to rot after the government failed to subsidize longan crops. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
A 16-year-old with an intellectual disability was released in November after being arrested over digital content. The teenager was jailed for comments he made in a chat group on Telegram.
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The supporters of Kak Sovann Chhay are waiting. His father, who is also a member of an outlawed political party, was jailed for making a statement on Facebook.
His father, a senior member of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, was in prison at the same time. He was sentenced to jail in 2020 for criticizing the prime minister on Facebook.
The authorities have been asked by internet service providers to clarify the gateway. Meta, Facebook's parent company, said in a statement that it had joined with other stakeholders in sharing their feedback on this new law with the Cambodian government and expressing their strong support for a free and open internet.
Three local journalists were charged and imprisoned last week for posting a report on a land dispute on Facebook.
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Prum Chantha, Kak Sovann Chhay's mother, cried as she performed a blessing ceremony for him.
35 days away from D-Day, no status update has been delivered by relevant authorities or the private sector itself. Naly Pilorge, director of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, said this month that they weren't expecting any public transparency.
She said that the government has tried to block content by requesting private-sector I.S.P.s to remove it. The National Internet Gateway gives them more power to crack down on dissent.
The Cambodian National Rescue Party had an online meeting in September that was bombed by the prime minister. He explained on Facebook that the entry was to warn the rebels that Mr. Hun Sen's people are everywhere.
San Mala, a senior advocacy officer with the Cambodian Youth Network, said that activists and rights groups were already using code to communicate with each other on online messaging platforms, knowing that the authorities had been emboldened by the decree.
Mr. San Mala, 28, said that they are concerned about the internet gateway law because they fear that their work will be subjected to snooping or that they will be able to attend online meetings without permission.
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A new law in Cambodia will make it easier for the authorities to monitor and punish online content, even though free speech is included in the Constitution, according to rights groups.
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights executive director said the timing of the new law was unnerving.
She said that there is a risk that the National Internet Gateway will be used to block and censor dissent online. Cambodian citizens will not be able to make an informed decision on which candidate to vote for to rule the country.
Mr. Kea Sokun was released from prison in October. He said that six months of his original 18-month sentence were suspended to keep him in line.
Mr. Kea Sokun's song "Khmer Land" has more than four million views on YouTube, and he is already working on his next album.
He knows what happened to him is unfair. The government made an example out of me to scare people. He said he could have had his sentence reduced if he apologized.
Mr. Kea Sokun said he wouldn't say he was sorry.
Soth Ban and Meas Molika contributed.
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