Bangkok, September 12, 2025– Cambodian authorities must quickly launch reporters Pheap Phara and Phon Sopheap, drop all pending complaints versus them, and quit using anti-state regulations to bother reporters, the Board to Protect Journalists said Friday.
Phara, a reporter with the local TSP 68 Television Online, and Sopheap, a journalist with Battambang Message Television Online, were apprehended separately on July 31 after returning from reporting on a Cambodia-Thailand boundary conflict in Uddar Meanchey district, news reports said.
Both reporters are charged under Section 445 of the criminal code of “delivering information to foreign states as a crime to jeopardize national protection,” according to a declaration by local rights team LICADHO.
“Coverage on national security problems is not a crime and is essential to the general public interest throughout armed problems,” claimed Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia rep. “Cambodian authorities must immediately free Pheap Phara and Phon Sopheap, end the use of lawful threats to silence the press, and uphold the essential duty of independent journalism during protection situations.”
A district attorney’s office statement launched on September 10 and priced quote in reports stated the reporters got in a limited battleground location to collect information and take photographs.
Convictions under the anti-state provision might be treated as treason and bring jail sentences of between 7 to 15 years. Sopheap and Phara are presently being held at the Siem Reap rural jail, reports claimed.
Cambodia and Thailand participated in several days of armed hostilities in late July over disputed border areas, killing at least 43 people on both sides, yet have kept a fragile ceasefire given that.
The Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed ask for comment.