Cambodia in the News

8.8.2015
Dark tourism in Anlong Veng: The government plans to turn the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng into a tourist hub, but no one is quite sure how. Read more on The Phnom Penh Post.

14.3.14
What’s Real Gets More Creative: ‘The Missing Picture’ - a memoir of genocide in Cambodia - and Other Films Rethink Documentaries. An autobiographical account of the genocide the Khmer Rouge inflicted on Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, the film is directed by a survivor, Rithy Panh, and uses techniques unusual in documentaries: clay figures set in dioramas and mixed in whatever grainy archival footage he could find, along with Khmer Rouge songs and speeches, dream and fantasy sequences, and a haunting original score, topping all that off with a hallucinatory, poetic, French-language narration. Read more on nytimes.com

27.12.12
Cambodia’s "War" On Internet Cafes
Internet cafes are seen as information hubs in most countries, but in Cambodia the government seems terrorized by their presence. Last February, the government mandated internet cafe owners to set up surveillance cameras in their shops and register the names of all customers as a "crime deterrence measure." Then it issued a new circular last month banning internet cafes within 500 meters of schools or educational buildings. Read on thediplomat.com

26.11.12
Rising Khmer literary star goes noir with crime thriller
Author Suong Mak had not even turned 16 when he was urged by teachers, family and friends to approach Phnom Penh’s publishing houses with the collection of his own short stories and novellas that had piled up on his desk. With four published books now under his belt, the softly-spoken 26-year-old’s most recent story, Hell in the City, was included in this month’s Phnom Penh Noir anthology. Read on: phnompenhpost.com


14.11.12
Report Details 20 Years of Impunity, Killings
A funeral wreath and photograph of a bespectacled middle-aged man adorns the cover of a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on extrajudicial killings in Cambodia, and what the group says is a pervading culture of impunity under the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. The man on the cover of the report is Om Radsady, a senior Funcinpec official, who was gunned down in broad daylight while eating lunch with friends at a packed restaurant on a busy Phnom Penh street in the run-up to the 2003 national elections. Read on cambodiadaily.com.


A history of violence
Systematic extra-judicial killings were directed and executed for decades by death squads established under Prime Minister Hun Sen’s regime and run by men who are now some of the highest-ranking members of government, a report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleges. Read on phnompenhpost.com.


Reckless claims do rights organisation little credit
General Mok Chito, Chief of the Interior Ministry’s Criminal Department Phnom Penh, writes: My objective is to propose that the Phnom Penh Post itself shed more light on the article headlined “A history of violence”, written by David Boyle and May Titthara and published in your November 14 issue. With the greatest respect to the editors-in-chief of the Post newspapers, I am extremely shocked by the publication of the above-mentioned article. Read on phnompenhpost.com.


16.10.12
Remembering Cambodia's Enigmatic King
The death of Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia, who succumbed to cancer Monday at the age of 89, is a moment to reflect on one of the great tragedies of the late 20th century. It would be inaccurate to blame the erstwhile king, even indirectly, for the genocide that was ultimately perpetrated in his country. That blame attaches solely to the communists. I often wonder, though, how things might have gone differently had the mercurial monarch been prepared to gamble on America. Read on: Seth Lipsky on wsj.com.


24.8.2012
A China backed company tries to take over the railways in Cambodia
According to a report published by English-written newspaper Phnom Penh Post, a new rail company, financed from Sino-Pacific Construction Consultancy Co. from China and Hikmat Asia Sdn. Bhd. from Malaysia, is looking to take over the 30-year rail concession given to Australian Toll Royal Railway and its local partner Royal Group of Companies. Read on traveldailynews.asia.

18.7.2012
Thousands of Cambodia schools close over fear of virus outbreak
Fane Greenwood on globalpost.com
Cambodia has closed all of its kindergarten and primary schools in anticipation of another outbreak of the widely-reported Enterovirus 71 (EV-71) virus, which has killed 55 children thus far. Read on: globalpost.com

17.7.2012
Top 10 Tour Of Cambodia
Mark Johanson on IBTraveler
Best beaches, Best Destinations for Nature, Best Destinations for Culture. Read on: ibtimes.com

15.07.2012
Hair extensions from Cambodia
Arno Maierbrugger on investvine.com
Backed by seed capital from a Japanese investment fund, Phnom Penh-based Arjuni Ltd has set up a buzzing e-commerce business selling natural hair extensions to worldwide customers. Read on: investvine.com

5.7.2012
Cambodian Deaths Tied to Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease
Associated Press
A deadly form of a common childhood illness has been linked to the mysterious child deaths in Cambodia that sparked alarm after a cause could not immediately be determined, health officials said. Read on: time.com

2.7.2012
4 Cambodian temples that aren't Angkor Wat
Ian Lloyd Neubauer on cnngo.com
At the turn of the millennium one could spend hours walking around Angkor Wat Archaeological Park without seeing a single foreigner. In the first three months of 2012 more than 640,000 visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yet there are dozens of Angkor-era temple complexes in Cambodia that receive a fraction of the visitors Angkor Wat gets. Read on: cnngo.com

1.6.2012
Long hair a luxury for evictees
May Titthara in The Phnom Penh Post
Kheng Chen had her hair cut in January and sold it to a broker for just under US$8. She isn’t happy with the close-cropped style because it makes her look older than her 48 years. But when Kheng Chen grows her hair back in a few months, she plans to sell it again.


11.4.2012 The Less Paid Attention Part of Siem Reap
A night I arrived Siem Reap for Blogfest 2012, I went out to eat at Night Market. In a mart, I saw a very young girl about 8 years old wearing torn clothe and carrying a little baby in her hands. To my surprise she spokes English really well. She was begging for a big can of milk powder in the mart from a beautiful female expat for her little brother or sister. But the expat refused to buy that big one for her because it cost too expensive, about USD18. She was asking the girl just to have a smaller one. But the girl refused. Then, she walked out, leaving three words to the expat, “F*ck Your Mummy”. Read on: khmerenterprises.com.


3.4.12
Selling Sex in Siem Reap
The Wandering Lawyer
the flush of prostitution in this boomtown is a well known phenomenon to the residents, Cambodian and expatriate alike. On a typical night Pub Street is filled with music and crowds spilling from its many bars. Outside of them you can see the girls clustered around tables and entrances, or just chatting together while they wait for the customers. Read on: wanderinglawyer.com

17.2.2012
The bar: The good, bad and practical
An American academic has spent seven years researching the local hostess bar scene, and come up with some surprising findings: the final installment of a three-part series. Read on: phnompenhpost.com

16.2.12
Why western boyfriends? A cultural perspective
An American academic has spent seven years researching the local hostess bar scene, and come up with some surprising findings. This is the second in a three-part series. Read on: phnompenhpost.com

15.2.12
Professional girlfriends: Moving beyond sex work An American academic has spent seven years researching the local hostess bar scene, and come up with some surprising findings. Read on: phnompenhpost.com

25.3.2011
Siem Reap
girlservesworld.wordpress.com
From Bayon temple to a karaoke bar. Read on: girlservesworld.wordpress.com

12.12.2009
Khmer Riche - The Anarchist Generation
Sydney Morning Herald
They live in one of the poorest countries on earth, yet they drive flash cars, dwell in mansions and scorn their impoverished brethren. Andrew Marshall meets the rich sons and daughters of Cambodia elite. Read on: khmerwriter.com

2.11.2008
Bringing Commerce to Cambodia
Ron Gluckman in Forbes
Brash, ambitious, some say ruthless, Kith Meng is building an empire in the newest tiger economy. Kith's Royal Group has a finger in nearly every pot simmering in Asia's newest tiger economy. Read on: khmerwriter.com