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Cambodian editor

sues govt for

compensation
PHNOM PENH: A Cambodian editor filed a legal suit on Wednesday demanding $47,520 from the government in compensation for the alleged illegal closure of his newspaper and loss of business.
"We were stopped from publishing from 11 September, 1994 to 14 June, 1995. Only the court can stop us that long," Thun Bun Ly, outspoken editor of the Uddomgettie Khmer (Khmer Ideal) newspaper, said.
Bun Ly claimed the Cambodian Ministry of Information had temporarily closed his newspaper for eight months, although the law provided the government could only do so for 30 days, after which a court must decide on the paper's fate.
Government lawyer Mao Sopheap argued that the ministry was not at fault as it had written to the court within one month of its order that the newspaper be closed.
Bun Ly was allowed to reopen his newspaper after June 14.
But last Monday, a Cambodian judge fined the editor on charges of defamation and publishing false information and shut down his newspaper completely.
Phnom Penh Municipal Judge Oum Sarith handed down a fine of 10,000 million riel (around $4,000) and said the editor would have to serve a two-year jail sentence if he could not pay within two months.
"Thun Bun Ly, the editor of the Uddomgetie Khmer has repeatedly published false information, defamed and insulted the leadership of the government.. made people lose confidence in the leadership of the royal government," the judge ruled.
The defendant, charged under a 1992 press law in connection with seven anti-government articles in his weekly newspaper, maintained his innocence and said he would appeal against the ruling.-Reuter