Local and international rights groups and legal observers have long condemned the treatment of the pair in the courts as part of a wider attack on the media and civil society in Cambodia and called for the country’s trade and aid partners to press for their release
Yeang Sothearin and Uon Chhin—who had worked as an editor, reporter and news anchor, and a photographer and videographer for RFA’s Khmer Service, respectively—were taken into custody in November 2017 and charged with “illegally collecting information for a foreign source” after RFA closed its bureau in the capital in September that year
Most Cambodian migrant workers are in Thailand, where NGOs estimate that more than million reside while the Cambodian Labor Ministry puts the figure at 1.6 million
Russia Today’s 2017 documentary – “My Mother Sold Me” – depicted a young Cambodian woman selling her daughter’s virginity. The film went viral – but it wasn’t good news for Cambodian fixer, Rath Rott Mony, who worked for RT. Cambodian authorities labeled it fake news and jailed him for “incitement to discriminate.” Now, Mony’s family says the Russian government, which bankrolls RT, should be working to get him free