‘A #Cambodian #journalist died…after he was shot this week while investigating #IllegalLogging in the country's northwest, police said. #ChhoeungChheung, 63, who worked for local news outlet Kampuchea Aphivath, "…went to investigate problems at a community forest when he was shot,". … the journalist died at a hospital in the early hours of Saturday... Chhoeung Chheung had faced "many threats" from illegal loggers due to his reporting.’ | Barron's https://www.barrons.com/news/cambodian-journalist-investigating-illegal-logging-shot-dead-0dfda9c1

The videos posted to Facebook all have the same look and feel: The subject looks directly at the camera, joins his hands in a sampeah – a #Cambodian gesture of respect – and apologizes.

Examples from last month – Cambodian #journalist Mech Dara and overseas #activist Hay Vanna – were just the latest additions to a long list of activists and #critics forced by #threats or legal action to recant and pledge their loyalty to the ruling #CambodianPeoplesParty (CPP).

Those are some of the most high-profile instances. Several other opposition activists told #RadioFreeAsia that they were forced to pledge allegiance to the ruling party to maintain the safety of their family or to avoid politically motivated criminal charges.

https://www.rfa.org/english/cambodia/2024/11/17/cambodia-opposition-defections/

#AsianMastodon #PoliticalBlackmail #Censorship #Coercion #Cambodia #Dissenters #WarOnActivists #TootSEA #AsiaNews #SouthEastAsia #Defectors