Cambodia's Internet May Soon Be Like China's: State-Controlled

All web traffic will be routed through a government portal. Rights groups say the situation is going to get worse. 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. All internet traffic will be sent through a government portal when Cambodia's National Internet Gateway begins operating in February. The gateway is mandatory for all service providers and gives state regulators the ability to prevent and cut off 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.