On 4th of November,1994, the Royal Government of Cambodia’s Council of Ministers approved the draft of press law. This draft has been perceived as restrictive and not conducive to the freedom of press.

The provisions that are most disturbing are proposals to jail journalists found guilty of defamation, libel and articles that might cause disruption of public order or endanger national security. Public order and national security have not been defined. As Cambodia does not yet have a judiciary that has the power to interpret laws, the executive could attribute what ever meaning it wishes to these words. In the national security and public order has been very restrictive-define.

Since the middle of this year, there had been voices crying for draconian laws against the press. One journalist was assassinated and another jailed. A chief executive of an international NGO was officially warned about his statements relating to the murder of a journalist. The leader of an NGO, LICADO, were also warned on similar allegations. The shooting of the five years old daughter of a staff member of UN Centre for Human Rights, is seen as a retaliation for the Centre’s activities promoting Human Rights. After three months there is no significant break through in finding the culprits of this crime.

The trend, at the beginning of 1994, was to encourage the freedom of the press. The minister of information promised press freedom in a public seminar organized by the Cambodia office of the UN Centre for Human Rights. He submitted a draft to the Council ministers that is considered more liberal in many essential aspects.

A widely held view is that hardening of attitudes of the Royal government relating to the freedom of press, is due to the fear that free press may damage foreign investment in Cambodia.

[Copies of the English translation of the Draft press law is available at the Asian Legal Resource Centre].

United Nations Human Rights Center in Cambodia consisted of the Human Rights Component of United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia (UNTAC) from March 1992 to September 1993.

Cambodia Field Office of United Nations Center for Human Rights (UNCHR) started from 1993 October to continue the task with the United Nations General Secretary’s Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia. Despite all these efforts, the human rights situation in Cambodia is in a very critical situation now.

The influence of United nations on the human rights began to suffer by mid-1994 with the shooting of five year old Monica Oliveros, a daughter of the administrative officer of the Cambodia Filed office of UNCHR. The newly appointed director of the center, Mr. Daniel Pr_mont, claimed that the shooting of the little girl was related to the work done by the staff. However, UNCHR’s official statement says that, the center’s staff are on a non-family mission, therefore, United Nations bears no responsibility for what happened to any family member of the staff. (The staff has challenged this position with documentary evidence to the contrary). The effectiveness of the United Nations human rights efforts and its moral credibility is now highly questionable. If United Nations wants seriously to assist Cambodians to live in less insecurity and have their rights respected, then it must examine its own recent record in Cambodia.

One of Cambodia’s major legal problems is a lack of proper penal code. While there had been many promises to introduce one, the drafting of it has taken a long time. While the urgency of making this law has been admitted by the administration, when the new law will be introduced is yet unknown. A group of senior officers from the ministry of justice and Interior, who met at beginning of 1994, recognized the lack of definition of many offenses hinders criminal investigations and administration of justice.

The observers find that the process of drafting of this law is slow and secretive. Many NGO’s too, have expressed the desire to participate and expedite this process.