Cambodia on Sunday reversed a ban on local radio stations airing foreign-produced broadcasts in the run-up to next month’s general election, following US criticism of the move as an attack on freedom of expression.
Local FM radio stations were this week ordered by the Information Ministry to provide “neutral” coverage of the election campaign and to suspend the broadcasting of Khmer-language programmes made by foreign broadcasters until after the July 28 election.
The edict was criticised by broadcasters and the US State Department, who called it a “serious infringement” of freedom of expression.
But in a U-turn on Sunday the information ministry issued a statement saying it had allowed local radio stations “to resume airing (foreign-produced) programmes as usual”.
The ministry said it took the decision following a “request”, without elaborating who had asked for the ban to be lifted.
US-funded Radio Free Asia, which produces content in the Khmer language, had called the ban “a blatant strategy to silence the types of disparate and varied voices that characterise an open and free society”.
