Cambodia Bans Thai TV as Border Row Boils Over

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PHNOM PENH — Cambodia has ramped up its diplomatic standoff with Thailand, banning all Thai films and television shows and cutting cross-border internet links in retaliation for escalating tensions over a disputed border zone.

 

The ban, announced Friday, follows a deadly skirmish on 28 May in a contested “no man's land” along the border, where a Cambodian soldier was killed. Both sides blamed each other. Now, what began as a brief armed clash has spiralled into a full-blown political tit-for-tat.

 

Cambodia’s Ministry of Fine Arts ordered all Thai movies and TV programmes off-air, impacting everything from soap operas to cinema imports. Meanwhile, telecommunications operators were instructed to reroute all international internet traffic to bypass Thailand — a move officials claim could cost Bangkok hundreds of millions in lost revenue.

 

“The government will act pre-emptively to ensure national self-reliance,” Prime Minister Hun Manet said, responding to Thai nationalist calls to sever electricity and internet ties with Cambodia.

 

Thai authorities, for their part, imposed tighter border controls and denied that any service disruptions were politically motivated, pointing instead to efforts to tackle online scam operations in Poipet.

 

Friday’s measures came just one day ahead of a long-scheduled meeting between the two nations’ joint border commission in Phnom Penh — an attempt to resolve ongoing disputes tied to the 1962 International Court of Justice ruling that handed sovereignty of the Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia, a decision Thailand has long struggled to accept.

 

Though both sides have since softened public rhetoric — avoiding terms like “withdrawal” in favour of “adjusted deployments” — tensions remain high, fuelled by mutual suspicion, nationalist pressure, and a long, bitter history.

 

As Thai dramas disappear from Cambodian screens and fibre-optic cables are re-routed, the region is once again reminded how fragile peace can be when politics plays out along an uncertain border.

 

-2025-06-14