The Atlantic and Arun Res coffee shops in Phnom Penh are a regular morning meeting place for Khmer journalists and publishers. Sitting in the shade of a tamarind tree where the National Assembly building used to be, they talk through the previous night’s newsworthy events. 

But this is no press club, it’s more a kind of bourse, a stock exchange for making money after turning information into disinformation, and personal weakness into corporate or political strength. 

In many cases, after the round-table discussion, one of the journalists will make a phone call for an appointment and then set a price for spiking (deleting) the story or changing the facts to fit a victim’s preferred profile. 

 Insiders suggest that the paymasters are usually government officials, prominent businessmen, customs officers, police and military officials who are ready to pay to prevent details of their illegal business practices, land grabs and sometimes extramarital affairs appearing in the papers. It is believed that payment to a reporter, editor-in-chief or even a publisher can run anywhere from $5 to more than $10,000. 

Phouk Vichet, publisher of Damneung Pisda, said journalists working for several of the big newspapers such as Rasmey Kampuchea, Koh Santepheap, Kampuchea Thmey and Deum Ampil demand hush-money to skew the news. 

“Top people are afraid of these newspapers and pay them off,” he said. “Their publishers and editors receive bribes of up to and beyond $10,000.”

An interview with owners of several underground gambling dens in Phnom Penh, revealed that they regularly pay bribes to journalists and publishers of several Khmer-language newspapers, including the five leading papers. In exchange, nobody makes public the whereabouts of their gambling dens.

“I pay money to representatives and publishers of Khmer newspapers every month,” says Hear Suor, an owner of a rain-betting den near Orussey market. “I love journalists as my brothers and sisters, so I give them money. I know every publisher of the Khmer-language newspapers, we have a mutual understanding.” He declined to say how much he pays every month to each newspaper, but according to sources, the going rate for illegal gambling joints is from $200 to $300.

Soy Sopheap, a news anchor for the Cambodia Television Network (CTN) and publisher of Deum Ampil newspaper, denied any knowledge of corruption. “I am not corrupt and I have never received money,” he told me during a phoned interview. Dam Sith, a publisher at Moneasekar Khmer, also denied he has been involved in corruption, saying he always respected ethical journalism: “I became rich by selling my newspaper. I have never received bribes from anybody.” 

Other editors, publishers and reporters were also asked, but were unwilling to respond to SEA Globe’s questions about pay-offs and handouts. 

Pen Samithi, editor-in-chief of Rasmey Kampuchea and president of the Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ), admitted there was corruption among Cambodian journalists, especially those whose newspapers were not available on news-stands. “I recognise that there are many corrupt journalists and the only way to solve this problem is for the ministry of information to be strict in issuing a licence to open a newspaper,” he said.

He became angry, though, when asked about his paper’s reporters who, it is said, extort bribes. “The problem is related to a bribe of millions of dollars to people besides journalists,” he says. “So we have to accept that every part of our society is corrupt, but among journalists it is very rare and isn’t a stumbling block to the development of Cambodia.”       

Phouk Vichet of Damneung Pisda said he received bribes of $20 from company directors every month in exchange for not reporting the actions of their businesses in the capital and provinces. 

Puth Samath, publisher of Chalna Sangkum newspaper, which like Damneung Pisda saw reporters arrested in 2007, agrees with him, saying payment for suppressing stories supports his daily life. “I have no salary and no money to run my newspaper, so I have no choice but to go around collecting small amounts of money from bad businessmen and corrupt officials. We are poor journalists. If we don’t try to make money this way we will die of hunger.”

Khieu Kola, a CCJ board member, confirmed that Cambodian journalists were deeply involved in corruption. “I acknowledge that they are really corrupt because government officials give them bribes in an exchange for favourable reporting,” he said. 

Om Chandara, publisher of Meatophoum newspaper and president of the Khmer Journalists Friendship Association (KJFA), says he is aware of the problem and suggests that the ministry of information should examine applications for licences or media passes more rigorously. “So far the ministry of information is careless in issuing licences and media passes. It hands out passes and registration even to untrained journalists who go around extorting money everywhere, from the capital to the provinces,” he said.

Responding to the criticism, Khieu Kanharith, Cambodia’s minister of information, said such critics had not read the press law. “It states that everybody can ask for a licence to open a newspaper and when they receive it they can create a newspaper . . . so I can’t ban anyone from doing so.” He had little desire to talk about the problem of corruption: “I don’t want to talk about Cambodian journalists. But it is a normal problem when a journalist collects money from others. It is because the authorities in the provinces are weak, so journalists can be corrupt and ask them for money.” 

Yem Noy, director of the media department at the ministry of information, said his department had received complaints about journalists extorting money, which breaks the current press law’s ethical code. 

Back in 2007, three publishers of local newspapers were arrested while they were trying to negotiate a $1,000 deal for not printing explicit photos of Vang Sreyno, the singer and film actress. Kuch Kuntha, publisher of Sangkum Cheat, Kang Samnang, the publisher of Investigation News, and Chan Chheyyuth, the publisher of National Solidarity News, were released four days later after intervention from several media associations and Hun Sen, the prime minister.

Kuntha says they were arrested by police when they arrived at a coffee shop near Wat Neakawan in Phnom Penh. “I think a journalist has the right to call someone and request an interview, but when I made it to the coffee shop to meet the singer I was arrested by the police. It was organised in advance by the singer and the police,” he said. “I didn’t talk about money at that time.”

On March 15, 2009, six Cambodian journalists were arrested by police in Kampong Thom province and sent to court on charges of extorting money from businessmen.

Stories like this appal Tieng Sophak Vichea, co-director of the department of media and communication at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. “Here, I have adopted foreign codes of ethical journalism. We have Khmer lecturers and foreign teachers from Germany and the US. The foreigners teach students the ethical journalism common in their countries while the Khmer instructors teach the Cambodian press law to improve our students’ knowledge of journalism and its ethical codes,” he said.