Cambodia jails translator over 'fake news' sex trafficking film

[snoop1130]

Cambodia jails translator over 'fake news' sex trafficking film

by Prak Chan Thul

 

Labor activist Rath Rott Mony arrives to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for verdict over his role in making a documentary about sex-trafficking that the government said contained fake news, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia June 26, 2019. REUTERS/Samrang Pring

 

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian court jailed a fixer and translator for two years on Wednesday for his role in making a documentary about sex trafficking in the Southeast Asian country which the government said contained “fake news”.

 

Prime Minister Hun Sen has launched a crackdown on government critics, including human rights advocates and opposition politicians, and has in recent years used the term “fake news” to discredit dissenting voices.

 

Rath Rott Mony, 48, was arrested in Thailand and sent back to Cambodia last year as he attempted to travel to the Netherlands with his family after helping produce the documentary for the Russia Today channel.

 

The documentary Mony worked on, titled “My Mother Sold Me”, included an account of a poor Cambodian girl who was sold into sex work, prompting authorities to question those involved.

 

Authorities have said the girl and her mother were paid $200 to lie in the documentary, which damaged Cambodia’s reputation. Russia Today has said that it never pays participants or interview subjects for a report.

 

Judge Koy Sao said Mony, who is also the president of the Cambodian Construction Workers Trade Union Federation (CCTUF), was convicted of incitement to cause discrimination, without elaborating.

 

Sao ordered Mony to pay $17,500 compensation to two of the mothers, Keo Malai and Tep Sreylin, who appeared in the film.

 

The two said Mony had promised to help solve a land dispute and open a shop for them if they made up the story about their daughters.

 

“I didn’t sell my daughter and Mony told me to say negative things so that there would be more funding,” Malai told Reuters after the verdict.

 

Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said Cambodia was trying to cover up the very serious poverty that compels urban families to encourage their daughters to engage in sex work.

 

“The push to imprison Mony is an example of Cambodia playing ‘shoot the messenger’ of a person who told the international community about an inconvenient reality the government wants to hide,” Robertson said in a statement.

 

Mony’s wife, Long Kimheang, said her husband had only worked as a translator.

 

“The court’s decision to put my husband in prison for two years is not justice,” Kimheang told Reuters.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-26

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[RJRS1301]

Oh do not criticise the regime there, you will end up in a foul lockup

Do not tell the truth

This the place some are looking at living in after Thailand, one of the worst human rights records.

 

[bluesofa]

Just swap the great leader's names from Hun Sen to Prayut, plus the country names.

Once that's done, I find it difficult to see the difference with the way both 'governments' are treating its citizens: No criticism, claims of 'fake news' if it's something they don't like.

[phycokiller]

1 hour ago, bluesofa said:

Just swap the great leader's names from Hun Sen to Prayut, plus the country names.

Once that's done, I find it difficult to see the difference with the way both 'governments' are treating its citizens: No criticism, claims of 'fake news' if it's something they don't like.

the difference is that unlike thailand in cambodia its more likely girls are pimped by their brothers than their mothers

[alfalfa19]

same same Thailand

[Assurancetourix]

20 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Just swap the great leader's names from Hun Sen to Prayut, plus the country names.

Once that's done, I find it difficult to see the difference with the way both 'governments' are treating its citizens: No criticism, claims of 'fake news' if it's something they don't like.

Rath Rott Mony had fled Cambodia with his family because he feared for his life and asked for political asylum in Thailand.
This country sent them back to Cambodia knowing very well what would happen to them.