Written by DAP NEWS -- Saturday, 03 October 2009
(Post by CAAI News Media)
The Cambodian Government strongly rejected UN Human Rights Envoy Surya Subedi’s calls for Cambodia to end the practice of suing and jailing its critics.
A UN human rights expert says freedom of speech is deteriorating in Cambodia after several government critics were convicted of defamation.
Surya Subedi said the conviction of an opposition lawmaker and two journalists in recent months “is a disturbing trend.”
Information Minister and Gover-nment spokesman Khieu Kahnarith on Friday dismissed the UN envoy’s criticism, saying that “I always say that the laziest workers are the staff of UN human rightss.” “What he says and claims, he doesn’t realize at all,” the minister added. He said that the main motivation of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in his controversial lawsuit against opposition leader Mu Sochua was “to prevent the premier’s dignity and value. We have to find the, but these human right workers do not observe.”
“We have allowed journalists to write whatever they want, but do not write any stories urging chaos and disorder in society; the Government will take measures soon in those cases,” Khieu Kahnarith said.
In his speech on Wednesday to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Surya Subedi said that Cambodian laws regulating speech go beyond what is permissible under international treaties.
The UN in March appointed its new Special Rapporteur for Human Rights to Cambodia, prompting civil society concerns that the official will face the same hostile reception as his predecessor. Premier Hun Sen blasted the former UN Human Right Envoy Yash Ghai as a “long term tourist” after he criticized the human rights situation in Cambodia.
No comments:
Post a Comment