"Cambodia: UN experts call for suspension of professional journalism charter", 12 September 2024

Independent UN experts … called for the suspension of Cambodia’s newly issued Charter for Professional Journalism and urged a thorough review to reform it.

The Ministry of Information’s formal promulgation of the Charter … came after the Ministry made the Charter public ...

“No comprehensive consultations were held as part of the process of developing the Charter and a few stakeholders were given only nine days to comment. Just four days after the deadline, the Charter was promulgated without the possibility of further discussion on the input by relevant parties,” the experts said.

Concerns also remain about the scope of its application, which appears intended to be applied broadly to individual journalists, media outlets, publishers, journalists’ associations, and those operating on social media platforms.

“The Charter fails to incorporate a public interest override and to establish properly the main remedies for when the media makes factual errors, namely the rights of correction and reply,” the experts said. They said the Charter further incorporates provisions that stresses the dissemination of only accurate information, or even to combat “fake news, malinformation, disinformation and misinformation”, rather than to take reasonable steps to verify information before publication. It also fails to establish properly the main remedies for when the media makes factual errors, namely the rights of correction and reply.

… The experts call on Cambodia to protect and promote independent, free and pluralist media as a vital pillar of democracy and an enabler of sustainable development and to reform laws, policies and practices, including the Charter, that impede freedom of expression.