PHNOM PENH - The heat was unbearable.
Even now, on the outside, Cambodian journalist Yeang Sothearin is reminded of it every time the temperature rises: the stifling overcrowded cell at Prey Sar prison, where he and fellow former Radio Free Asia journalist Uon Chhin spent almost 10 months of their lives.
“I was sucked physically and mentally and separated from my family,” Sothearin, 36, recalled in a recent interview in Phnom Penh. “My wife was not with me, and my children did not have their father with them. It is a painful experience since the beginning.”
Sothearin and Chhin were initially detained in November 2017 on accusations they set up a karaoke parlor without permission. Then they were charged with “sending information to a foreign government" but eventually released in August 2018.
Their incarceration, however, was widely viewed as part of a state-backed crackdown against independent media and opponents before the country’s 2018 national election, in which the ruling Cambodian People’s Party won all seats after dissolving the main opposition party.
Now, nearly a year since the ballot, the wave of oppression may have subsided, but the damage to the country’s democratic structures is clearly visible.
This is particularly the case with Cambodia’s once vibrant independent media. Radio stations have been shut down and the English-language newspaper was slapped with a tax bill of more than $6 million, forcing it to close.
Two of its former reporters, charged with “inciting a crime” for asking questions about voting habits, have left the country.
One of them, veteran Cambodian journalist Aun Pheap, 55, sought asylum in the U.S.
A large tax bill was also delivered to the Daily’s crosstown rival, , which was then sold to a Malaysian publisher with links to the government.
With International Press Freedom Day marked May 3, journalists in Cambodia spoke to VOA about working in an environment of intimidation, harassment, and fear of arrest. Self-censorship has become more common, they say.
For Sothearin, it feels like being haunted. While he was released on bail last August after the election, the charge still dangles above his head. According to Sothearin’s lawyer Sam Chamroeun the prosecutor’s investigation has finished and the case has been handed to the judge.
However, no date for a trial has been set and no evidence to support the charges has emerged. Court officials declined to discuss the case.
In the meantime, Sothearin’s passport has been confiscated, meaning he’s unable to travel to his parents in Vietnam’s south, and he’s required to report to the court once a month.
“My children are worried about me. ‘[They asked me] father, when could we go to our homeland? When will the court drop the charge against you? Will the court put you in jail again?’” Sothearin said.
After six years of reporting, he’s also lost his job after RFA shut down its local operation amid the crackdown.
Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) executive director Tess Bacalla said the arrest of Sothearin and his colleague has had “a chilling effect on Cambodian journalists."
“Even if these reporters were freed eventually, on pain of being sent back to prison anytime, there was no mistaking the clear signal, or warning, it sent to the media: Don't overstep your bounds. Or put simply, don't publish critical reports that put the government in a bad light lest you suffer the same dire consequences, or worse, as others that have found themselves in government's cross-hairs,” Tess Bacalla told VOA via email.
Nop Vy, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM), which runs VOD, said that the attacks on media make journalists think twice about what they write.
“Censorship exists amongst our journalists,” she said. “Some stories are even hard to get published because of the difficulty in getting information from relevant institutions. Other cases it's because of sensitivity and the in-depth nature of the story that affect some high ranking officers.”
“In short, the journalists more or less fear because they have seen the situation in the country, the arrests, lawsuits, and accusations.”
The former RFA pair aren’t the only ones to find themselves behind bars. Last December, fixer and translator Rath Rott Mony was arrested for a report on child sex trafficking that he helped Russian media to cover.
Yon Sineat, 34, a former reporter for Phnom Penh post, says the cases weigh on her mind when doing journalism in Cambodia.
Sineat said she left the because she wants to maintain her independence and neutrality in her reporting news.