The Cambodian federal government has actually prohibited a British reporter from going into the nation in a relocation press groups condemned as an attack on independent media.
Gerald Flynn, 33, who composes for Mongabay, was stopped from going into Cambodia at the Siem Reap International Airport on 5 January, the publication stated.
The reporter was returning from a vacation in Thailand when he was rejected entry and required on an airplane back to Bangkok.
Migration authorities informed Mr Flynn that he was completely prohibited from Cambodia due to an “mistake on a file sent as part of his last visa extension application”, Mongabay stated, including that he held a legitimate work authorization in addition to a 12-month extension to his multiple-entry organization visa provided on 6 February 2024.
The reporter was likewise revealed migration files suggesting that he had actually been contributed to Cambodia’s blacklist on 25 November. Mr Flynn was blacklisted days after a France24 documentary important of the Cambodian carbon balancing out efforts was aired in which he was talked to.
The nation’s environment ministry and the job supporter Wildlife Alliance dismissed the documentary and implicated the French broadcaster without proof of “utilizing old images” to misguide the general public, according to the publication.
The migration workplace apparently declared Mr Flynn had actually made an application for a visa to work as an electrical contractor in spite of having actually worked as a reporter for more than 5 years in Cambodia.
” Unfortunate to validate that I was rejected re-entry to Cambodia on Jan 5 and, a month later on, it’s no clearer regarding whether I can return, however it does appear to be retaliation for my journalistic work,” Mr Flynn composed on X.
Mr Flynn, who had actually been operating in Cambodia considering that 2019, informed the Guardian the circumstance for the media had actually weakened in the last 5 years. “We have actually seen more arrests, more suits, more harassment, both physical and online. We have actually even had reporters eliminated,” he stated.
” The federal government’s intolerance towards anything that they consider important has actually made it really dangerous for all reporters in Cambodia to continue running.”
Person Rights Watch stated the restriction on Mr Flynn was a “outright attack” on journalism and functioned as another example of the Cambodian federal government’s “intolerance of important and investigative journalism”.
Media guard dog RSF signed up with press groups in condemning the occurrence. Mr Flynn was targeted in retaliation for his reporting on ecological concerns, Cédric Alviani, director of the Paris-based group, stated.
The media guard dog ranked Cambodia 151st out of 180 nations on its newest global press liberty index.
Press liberty is consistently cut in Cambodia through approximate arrests of reporters and ecological activists.
Reporter Chhoeung Chheng was shot dead by an assaulter last December while reporting on the transportation of declared unlawfully cut wood in the Boeung Per Wildlife Sanctuary.
In November, 6 popular ecological activists were apprehended for 3 days and questioned while examining an illegal wood trafficking network in Stung Treng province that Mr Flynn had actually reported on for Mongabay, Person Rights Watch stated.
Another Cambodian reporter, Mech Dara, was implicated of distributing phony news and apprehended on charges of incitement.